Former national captain Gyanendra Malla was drawn as marquee player of Kathmandu Gorkhas on Saturday during a player draft for Nepal T20, the first ever official franchise tournament to be organised by the Cricket Association of Nepal.

Apart from Malla, national team vice-captain Rohit Paudel was drawn as marquee player of Biratnagar Super Kings, Sompal Kami for Janakpur Royals, Dipendra Singh Airee for Lumbini All Stars, Karan KC for Far West United and Aasif Sheikh for Pokhara Avengers.

Altogether 13 cricketers were pitted in ‘A’ category in the draft for the event set to take place from September 24 to October 22. But national captain Sandeep Lamichhae, suspended by CAN for alleged rape case, was expelled from the draft. Among the remaining 12 players, six were picked in the draft. The marquee players will get fees of Rs1.5 million each for the tournament.

The franchises were also offered a chance to pick remaining ‘A’ category players who were not drawn as marquees. In the random draw, Sharad Vesawkar was picked by Pokhara and he would also get fees of Rs1.5 million. Other cricketers in the ‘A’ category—Subash Khakurel, Binod Bhandari, Aarif Sheikh, Abhinash Bohara and Kushal Bhurtel—were not drawn by any of the teams. Now they would be dropped to ‘B’ category for the draw to take place on Sunday.

The fees for players under ‘B’ and ‘C’ category have been fixed at Rs1 million and Rs500,000, respectively. Altogether 92 players are listed for the draft. A team could only pick 11 players from the draft and they could recruit five overseas players in their squad. Among five overseas players, four would be eligible in the starting lineup.

Among the marquee players, Paudel and Aasif have been chosen in the role for the first time at domestic franchise events. Both the players have been putting on impressive shows for the national side in recent events.

Paudel was appointed national team vice-captain in May. He also led the team as captain in the recent three-match One Day International series in Kenya which Nepal swept 3-0. Aasif had scored a century in the first match of the series and was also declared the player of the series.

Malla, Airee, Kami and KC have all been named marquee players in domestic franchise tournaments played earlier and also shouldered captain’s responsibility.