South African T20 team Nashua Dolphins announced their 15-member squad for the 2008 Champions League Twenty20 cricket tournament. Titans are runners-up in the domestic Twenty20 tournament and the winners of the Standard Bank Pro20 Series. ICC Test Player of the Year 2008 Dale Steyn and All-rounder Morne Morkel along with AB De Villiers are crucial players for Titans in the Champions League. Titans will play in the Champions League without their all-rounder Albie Morkel as he opted for Chennai Super Kings. This is a huge blow for their hopes.  Nashua Titans are placed in Group A along with Chennai Super Kings, Victoria Bushrangers and Middlesex Crusaders. Titans are looking strong in the bowling department with pace bowlers like Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and spinner Paul Harris (injured). AB De Villiers is their batting star along with wicket keeper batsman HG Kuhn.  They will play their first match with Middlesex Crusaders on December 5 in Chennai. Titans will face stiff competition from Victoria and Chennai Super Kings in Group-A and they may find it difficult to reach their target of semi-finals. Morne Morkel won the South African player 2008 award while MV Jaarsveld won the PCA player of the year 2008 award. India born GH Bedi won the 2007 Player of the year award. Pretoria Titans T20 Squad: Captain: Pierre Joubert. Champions League team: AB De Villiers, HG Kuhn (Wicket keeper), Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, MV Jaarsveld, GH Bedi, RE van der Merwe, Md Imran Tahir, EN Mbhalati, , Francois du Plessis, BD Walters, Farhaan Behardien, Paul Harris, and MA Phangiso.  Note: Terrorist attacks in Mumbai are big blow to the Champions League tournament organizers. Terrorists attacked famous Taj and Oberoi hotels and held many foreigners as hostages for almost 10 hours. We have to see how foreign teams will react to this news. Middlesex already cancelled their Mumbai flight.  … [Read more...]