Subash Khakurel, the former opening batter of the national cricket team, became the only unsold ‘A’ category player at a draft for the Nepal Twenty20 in Kathmandu on Sunday.

The wicketkeeper-batter was one among five ‘A’ category players who were unsold during the draft for marquee and ‘A’ category players on Saturday. The others—Binod Bhandari, Aarif Sheikh, Abhinash Bohara and Kushal Bhurtel—who remained unsold were dropped to ‘B’ category and all four were selected by different franchises on Sunday.

Sri Lankan players dominated the draft for overseas players. Among 33 foreign players picked by the franchises, 14 are Sri Lankans. A team will be eligible to include only four overseas players in the starting lineup.

Bhandari was drawn for Farwestern United, Bhurtel by Lumbini All Stars, Bohara by Kathmandu Gurkhas and Aarif Sheikh by Pokhara Avengers at a lucky draw. The ‘B’ category players will get tournament fees of Rs1 million each while ‘A’ category players will get Rs1.5 million. The ‘C’ category players will get Rs500,000 each.

But none of the six teams showed interest in Khakurel for the first ever official franchise tournament to be organised by cricket governing body Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) under partnership with the Indian sports management company Seven3Sports. The tournament is scheduled from September 24 to October 22 at TU ground, Kirtipur.

Each team on Saturday had picked a marquee player from among 12 ‘A’ grade players. Though Sharad Vesawkar was not picked as marquee player on Saturday, he was drafted as ‘A’ grade player by Pokhara.

All the teams on Sunday picked 11 Nepali players each except Farwestern United who drafted 12 players. Among 92 players in the draft, 25 went unsold while 67 were sold. Each side drafted four ‘B’ category players except Pokhara Avengers who picked three players as they had already chosen Vesawkar as their second ‘A’ category players.

The teams drafted six ‘C’ category players except Farwestern United who picked seven players.

In the draft on Saturday, former national captain Gyanendra Malla was picked as marquee player of Kathmandu Gurkhas, national team vice-captain Rohit Paudel 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.

Drafted Players

Kathmandu Gurkhas

Gyanendra Malla (Marquee), Lokesh Bam (B), Basir Ahmad (B), Kamal Singh Airee (B), Abinash Bohora (B), Anil Kharel (C), Saurav Khanal (C), Sandeep Rajali (C), Santosh Karki (C), Sunam Gautam (C) and Gautam KC (C).

Overseas players: Thisara Parera (A), Darshanpriya Weerakkody (B), Kamindu Mendis (C), Virandeep Singh (C) and Dhananjaya Dsilva (B).

Pokhara Avengers

Aasif Sheikh (Marquee), Sharad Veswakar (A), Kushal Malla (B), Pratish GC (B), Aarif Sheikh (B) Tul Bahadur Thapa (C), Bishal Bikram KC (C), Krishna Karki (C), Bipin Khatri (C), Sumit Maharjan (C) and Siddhant Lohoni (C).

Overseas players: Mohammad Hafeez (A), Seekkuge Prasana (B), Niroshan Dickwella (B), Salman Irshad (C) and Shehan Madhushanka (C).

Biratnagar Superkings

Rohit Kumar Paudel (Marquee), Arjun Saud (B), Nandan Yadav (B), Bibek K Yadav (B), Shahab Alam (B), Amar Singh Rautela (C), Narayan Joshi (C), Surya Tamang (C), Pradeep Singh Airee (C), Prithu Baskota (C), Rijan Dhakal (C).

Overseas players: Angelo Mathews (A), Joshua Persuad (B), Andre McCarthy (B), Gauranshu Sharma (C), Minod Ranasinghe (C) and Keon Joseph (C).

Lumbini All Stars

Dipendra Singh Airee (Marquee), Anil K Shah (B), Kushal Bhurtel (B), Gulshan Jha (B), Sagar Dhakal (B), Yogendra Singh Karki (C), Kishor Mahato (C), Tilak Raj Bhandari (C), Sunil Dhamala (C), Akash Chand (C) and Ishan Pandey (C).

Overseas players: Ben Cutting (A), Rakheem Cornwall (B), Pat Brown (B), Bipul Sharma (C), Lahiru Milantha (C) and Nuwan Tushara (C).

Janakpur Royals

Sompal Kami (Marquee), Sanjeep Jora (B), Md Aadil Alam (B), Dilip Nath (B), Lalit Rajbanshi (B), Sushan Bhari (C), Sagar Pun (C), Pawan Sarraf (C), Jitendra Mukhiya (C), Khadak Bohora (C) and Rajesh Pulami (C).

Overseas players: Adam Lyth (A), Trevon Abashai Griffth (B), Ibrahim Zadran (B), Raj Rocky Nannan (C) and Subhashinge Priyanjan (C).

Farwestern United

Karan KC (Marquee), Binod Bhandari (B), Bhim Sharki (B), Dev Khanal (B), Rashid Khan (B), Durgesh Gupta (C), Bhuwan Karki (C), Hari Shankar Shah (C), Sher Malla (C), Basant Karki (C), Prakash Jaisi (C) and Hashim Ansari (C).

Overseas players: Carlos Brathwaite (A), Dushan Hemantha (C), Pulina Tharanga (C), Jason Mohammad (C), Allah Ghazanfar (C) and Zia-ul Rehman (C).