Steve Smith to play for Barbados Tridents in Caribbean Premier League

Steve Smith, former Australia captain, will next be seen in action in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) next month after he was announced as a replacement for Shakib Al Hasan in the Barbados Tridents.

Smith had previously played in the Global T20 Canada League as the 12 month ban handed to him does not include domestic T20 leagues outside of Australia.

Smith was signed up after it was learnt that Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib would be “unavailable” for the tournament, organisers had stated.

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“It is a huge blow to lose Shakib for the tournament but in Steve Smith we have a truly world-class replacement who can help to bring power to our batting line-up,” Tridents coach Robin Singh said in a news release. according to Reuters.

“As a man who has played cricket at the highest level all over the world, we are very confident that Smith will be a big success with the Tridents.”

David Warner, Smith’s former vice captain who is serving a similar 12-month ban for his role in the scandal, will also be turning out in the CPL having replaced D’Arcy Short at the St Lucia Stars when the all-rounder was called up by Australia ‘A’.

Widely considered one of the best batsmen in the world, Steve Smith has played 155 T20 games in his career, scoring 3124 runs at an average of 30.03 and a strike-rate of over 125.

He led the now-defunct franchise Rising Pune Supergiant to the IPL 2017 final, which they lost by one run and has also captained the Rajasthan Royals.

(With Reuters inputs)