Despite the fact that he was unavailable for the team during their recent Friends Life t20 campaign, English County club Hampshire are aiming to sign Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi for the upcoming Champions League Twenty20.
Afridi, who played 10 matches for the club last year (during which he claimed 17 wickets at 11.17), was prevented from flying out to join Hampshire for the domestic T20 tournament owing to visa issues.
He was due to fly directly to the UK from Sri Lanka, where Pakistan had been playing a 5-match ODI series in June this year. However, complications in the completion of his visa application forced him to fly back to Pakistan, after which it was deemed too late into the season for him to join up with Hampshire.
“Although Shahid will not be returning this time around, the door is still open for him to return to Hampshire in future years should circumstances suit both parties,” Hampshire manager Giles White had confirmed on June 30. “He obviously had a huge impact for us last year and has been missed. However, we are now deep into the 2012 competition and the side is settled so we don't feel it is right to change that now.”
His replacement, Australia’s Glenn Maxwell, did not allow the team to feel Afridi’s absence, claiming 7 scalps and scoring 179 runs at a strike-rate of 175.49 in nine matches. The FLt20 culminated with Hampshire and Yorkshire as the losing finalists, which enabled both teams to qualify for the Champions League T20, due to be held in South Africa this October.
The main event will be preceded by a qualifying round, which both teams will have to get through in order to make it to the actual tournament. Hampshire have been placed in the Qualifying Tournament Pool 1, with New Zealand’s Auckland Aces and Pakistan’s Sialkot Stallions.
Should they succeed in topping the group during the qualifying stage (which lasts from October 9 to 11), Hampshire will make it to the CLT20 – a campaign for which they are aiming to draft Afridi into their squad.
The 32-year-old, who has not played for Hampshire this season, qualifies for inclusion in the squad owing to a technicality in the CLT20 rules.
The rules dictate that only players who have been registered with the team during the qualifying phase can be included in the squad, but does not mention that they need to have featured in any games. Afridi was registered with the team throughout (as their management confirmed to ESPNcricinfo), which allows Hampshire to sign him for the CLT20.
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