The 2024 Pakistan Super League, with Essex representation in Jordan Cox, Paul Walter, and Catherine Dalton, begins today.
Cox’s Islamabad United travel to Lahore Qalandars in the tournament opener, which takes place from 2:30pm GMT.
Meanwhile, Walter and Dalton will get their first taste of the action on Sunday, with the former representing Peshawar Zalmi and the latter filling the role of fast bowling coach at Multan Sultans.
Walter’s Zalmi take on Quetta Gladiators in the tournament’s second match from 9:00am GMT, before Dalton’s side host Karachi Kings later that day at 2:30pm GMT.
Cox, who was selected in the PSL’s draft as a highest-category Platinum pick, has had a globetrotting winter, turning out in the UAE’s T10 and ILT20 leagues, as well as the Big Bash in Australia.
He was the second-highest run-scorer in the former competition while representing Bangla Tigers, hitting 265 runs in six matches at an average of 66.25 and a colossal strike rate of 232.46.
Walter has also had an off-season to remember, winning Australia’s Big Bash League with Brisbane Heat, as his 17 wickets represented the joint-third-highest haul in the tournament.
Former Ireland international Dalton has made her own mark away from the field, with her appointment making her the first female PSL coach, as well as the first female fast bowling coach of any professional men’s team.
“It’s powerful to see female coaches on the sidelines,” said Dalton. “You want to break a barrier, and it fills you with a lot of pride that you’ve done that.”
“But you want it to be the pathway for other females to break into the men’s profession, because there’s so much knowledge and understanding out there in women’s sport and women’s coaching. It needs to be the norm.”
Both Dalton and Cox’s second games will see them go indirectly head-to-head, as the Sultans’ Dalton-coached fast bowling battery faces off against Cox and Islamabad on Tuesday, 20 February.
The group stages of the competition conclude on Tuesday 12 March, with the final set to take place the following Monday, the 18th.
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