LON­DON–Or­gan­is­ers of the Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) say they have signed Sri Lankan spin great Mut­ti­ah Mu­ralitha­ran for their in­au­gur­al Twen­ty20 com­pe­ti­tion in Ju­ly and Au­gust.

Mu­ralitha­ran, the world's lead­ing all-time test wick­et-tak­er with 800, has played in var­i­ous Twen­ty20 com­pe­ti­tions since re­tir­ing from in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et in 2011. He is cur­rent­ly play­ing for the Roy­al Chal­lengers Ban­ga­lore in the In­di­an Pre­mier League.

In a state­ment re­leased by or­ga­niz­ers, the 41-year-old Mu­ralitha­ran says, "I am good friends with a num­ber of the West In­di­an play­ers... and hav­ing the chance to play on a team with guys com­pet­ing in their home coun­tries will be fan­tas­tic for me."

Mu­ralitha­ran joins sev­er­al oth­er top in­ter­na­tion­al stars who have signed on to play in the new league.

Pak­istan all-rounder Mo­ham­mad Hafeez, Aus­tralians Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist and New Zealand's Ross Tay­lor have al­so com­mit­ted to the league.

They will join sev­er­al top West In­di­an play­ers now ply­ing their trade in the In­di­an pre­mier League, among them Dwayne Bra­vo, Ke­iron Pol­lard, Sunil Nar­ine and Dwayne Smith, in the Caribbean first pro­fes­sion­al crick­et league.

The league is sched­uled to be­gin on Ju­ly 29 and run till Au­gust 26. The tour­na­ment in­volves six fran­chise coun­tries across the Caribbean–An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, Bar­ba­dos, Guyana, Ja­maica, St. Lu­cia and Trinidad & To­ba­go. All teams can have one lo­cal and an in­ter­na­tion­al fran­chise play­er apiece.

The play­er draft will be May 24. (AP)

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