Rahul Dravid joins ETPL as owner of Dublin Guardians

Rahul Dravid has been unveiled as the owner of Dublin Guardians, one of the six teams in the European T20 Premier League (ETPL). Dublin, alongside Edinburgh, Belfast, Amsterdam, Glasgow and Rotterdam, forms Europe's first ICC-sanctioned multi-country franchise T20 league. 

It has been launched in partnership with the Royal Dutch Cricket Association, Cricket Ireland and Cricket Scotland. The inaugural edition of the tournament will run from August 26 to September 20, making it a direct clash with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), which is set to be played from August 7 to September 20.

"What attracted me to ETPL was the larger vision behind it, the opportunity to help grow cricket in Europe by strengthening grassroots development and creating pathways for emerging talent across Ireland and Europe," Dravid said in his statement. "Dublin already has a passionate cricketing community and enormous potential for growth. Nurturing the next generation has always been important to me, and I believe ETPL can play a meaningful role in that journey."

Cognizant of the competition from other sports in Europe, Dravid said that the standard of cricket in the league has to be top-notch to sustain itself and draw eyeballs.

"At the grassroots level, it's about creating that awareness for the fans, it's about getting people on the ground, it's about giving them a great experience," the former India captain said. "When they come to the cricket, the quality has got to be of a high standard but the experience of everything else at that venue has to be top-notch. Because we are competing with some very, very established sports."

There will be a lot of star power as the driving force behind the league in its inaugural edition. Liam Livingstone, Mitchell Santner, Steve Smith, Faf du Plessis, Heinrich Klaasen, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Tim David will be the centre of attraction once the first season gets underway in August.

Maxwell and Du Plessis also co-own Irish Wolves and Rotterdam Dockers, respectively. Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills (owners of Edinburgh Castle Rockers), Steve Waugh (co-owner of Amsterdam Flames), Chris Gayle (co-owner of Glasgow Cosmic) and South Africa legend Jonty Rhodes (co-owner of Rotterdam Dockers) are some of the high-profile cricketers who are associated with the league. Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan co-owns the ETPL.

"I know some of the names...some absolutely great players," mentioned Dravid. "A great opportunity for them to be able to play with so many of the local Irish, Scottish, Dutch and European players. I think that in itself should be a really exciting opportunity."