Melbourne, Oct 23 (IBNS): The Melbourne Stars on Tuesday announced the joint signing of Nepal leg-spinner Sandeep Lamichhane and English leg-spinner Matt Parkinson as international players for the BBL|08 season.
Lamichhane will join the Stars from the commencement of the season, and will be available for approximately half the season pending his commitments with Sylhet Sixers in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), returning in time for the February fixtures and BBL Finals.
Replacing Lamichhane during his BPL stint will be Matt Parkinson, a talented 21 year old leg-spinner with impressive first-class and T20 bowling statistics from his time at Lancashire.
Melbourne Stars list manager, Trent Woodhill, was tasked with searching the world for exciting new talent and was thrilled to secure both young superstars, including the first player from an Associate country to play in the BBL.
“I first saw Sandeep bowl for Nepal in the Asian U19 Championships in Malaysia and was immediately impressed by both his skill as a wrist spinner and also his energy. I watched Matt bowl for Lancashire in the Vitality Blast this season where he helped them reach the semi finals with some dominant performances,” said Woodhill.
Despite his age, Lamichhane has already impressed on the world stage gaining contracts in various T20 competitions including the IPL, CPL, Global T20 Canada and the BPL this year.
“Lamichhane had a successful IPL debut for Delhi and bowled well in the CPL. We have high expectations that he will light up the BBL and become a star of the tournament,” said Woodhill.
For his part, the young Nepal player said he was excited to join his Delhi team mate, Glenn Maxwell, and the rest of the Stars in Melbourne this summer.
“I am delighted to be joining the Stars, it has always been a dream to play on the MCG. I am very excited to join the team,” said Lamichhane.
Melbourne Stars CEO, Clint Cooper, said the Club was pleased that the new BBL rules around overseas replacement players allowed the Stars to secure two young players who could quickly become fan favourites.
"The increased flexibility with contracting overseas players this summer has provided us a great opportunity to showcase some of the world’s best up and coming talent. Wrist spinners have dominated T20 tournaments worldwide and we expect our new recruits along with our frontline leggie, Adam Zampa, to have a big impact this season, said Cooper.
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