James Anderson will continue his playing career in Italy.
He will captain and co-own Napoli Knights, one of six teams in the Italia T10 league as the 44-year-old extends his career after being released by Lancashire, his club of 25 years.
Anderson, who played more than 400 times for England in all formats and took nearly 1,000 wickets, is a big name to join the format.
The Italy T10 League is a 10-to-1 competition which takes place over 12 days in Rome Cricket from 18 November.
It was created by Nadeem Shahid, a former professional cricketer, and Aamir Akhtar, who helped set up the Everest Premier League in his native Nepal.
High-profile players such as Chris Gayle, Shaun Marsh and Dawid Malan will also play, joined by members of the Italian national team who impressed earlier this year when they narrowly lost to England in the T20 World Cup.
“The potential for cricket in Italy made it a big draw,” Shahid told Reuters. “One of the things that made it attractive is the Italian Olympic Committee starting to take it seriously after it became an Olympic sport.”
He noted: “Tickets will be free for all matches, and there will be coaching clinics on the sidelines.”
Anderson’s company, Activate Sport & Leisure, will be involved in some of those clinics as Italy aims to develop homegrown talent capable of competing at Olympic level by the time of the 2032 Games in Brisbane.
“Of course, we want the Napoli Knights to be competitive and challenge for the title, but we also want to contribute to something that continues to grow beyond the tournament itself,” Anderson said.
