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• Finch and De Kock among first overseas players in Major League Cricket

  Former Australia captain Aaron Finch and ex-South Africa skipper Quinton de Kock are among the first overseas names for Major League Cricket's inaugural season.

  The pair were among six non-domestic players assigned during Sunday's draft at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

  Australia duo Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Marsh, along with South Africa's Anrich Nortje and Sri Lanka's Wanindu Hasaranga were also included as overseas participants.

  Major League Cricket – the first professional T20 league in the United States – will consist of six franchises in its debut year, as cricket looks to build a foothold in the country.

  The ICC are hopeful the sport will be included in the 2028 Olympic Games, to be held in Los Angeles, where one of the half-dozen teams will be based.

  Finch, who retired from T20Is in February, will captain San Francisco Unicorns, where he will be joined by compatriot Stoinis and England's Liam Plunkett, who qualifies as a domestic player through his American wife.

  The pace bowler, who was a member of the successful England team from the 2019 Cricket World Cup, previously played in Minor League Cricket, the developmental league for MLC.

  De Kock is set to play for Seattle Orcas alongside Marsh, while Nortje and Hasaranga will turn out for Washington Freedom.

  The three remaining sides – Texas Super Kings, Los Angeles Knight Riders and MI New York – are yet to add an overseas player, though each drafted nine US-based players on Sunday.

  The tournament will take place over three weeks at Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas between July 13 and 30.

• Karunaratne wants to step down as Sri Lanka captain

  Dimuth Karunaratne wants to step down as Sri Lanka captain following the Test series against Ireland next month.

  The opening batter revealed after a hammering by an innings and 58 runs in the second Test against New Zealand that he has offered his resignation.

  Karunaratne, who was appointed in 2019, hopes his reign will come to an end after the second and final match of the series versus Ireland in Galle.

  He said: "I've talked with the selectors about stepping down as captain after the Ireland series. In the next WTC cycle, you've got to do two years.

  "I think it's best if a new captain does that whole cycle than for me to do half and hand over. I've talked to the selectors about this, but I haven't got a response yet. My preference is to handover to a new leader after the next series."

  Karunaratne made half-centuries in both innings of a heavy defeat to the Black Caps at Basin Reserve, which consigned the tourists to a 2-0 defeat.

  The 34-year-old was not content with his knocks of 89 and 51 in Wellington.

  "I played Tests after eight months. I only got to play one innings in a four-day match in between," Karunaratne said.

  "!'m someone who gets a big one after getting a start, so I think I don't have that patience at the moment, and I need to go back to domestic cricket and develop that again.

  "After eight months, although I made some runs here, I could have done more, I think. Twice, I think I could have turned half-centuries into hundreds, and I wasted them."

• CWI to hire separate head coaches for Test and White-Ball cricket in bid to aid player development

  The role of head coach for the West Indies Senior Men’s teams will be split into two separate positions, Cricket West Indies has announced.

  Recruitment start immediately for a Red Ball Head Coach for Test and ‘A’ Team cricket, as well as a White Ball Head Coach for One-Day Internationals (ODI) and T20 International (T20I) cricket, the governing body said in a statement released on Wednesday.

  "After recently completing an independent review of our 2022 ICC World Cup performance, which included a closer look at the roles of the current Head Coach position, we believe it is now necessary to split the role and engage separate coaches for red and white ball formats,” said CWI’s Director of Cricket Jimmy Adams.

  “The increased frequency of back-to-back multi-format tours combined with the specific demands of the respective formats no longer provides enough time for one individual to adequately plan, prepare and review across bilateral series and franchise itineraries that are so condensed.

  “Separating the roles will also provide the head coaches with more time to oversee players’ ongoing development away from tours directly, and through increased engagement and planning with suitable high-performance programmes and coaches.”

  According to Adams, the decision to separate the head coaching roles stems from the recommendation by the independent three-member World Cup Review Group that was appointed by CWI to conduct a comprehensive review of the West Indies Men’s team’s early exit from at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia last year.

  The group was chaired by Justice Patrick Thompson Jr., a High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, and included Brian Lara, the West Indies batting legend, along with former South African, Pakistan, and Sri Lankan international coach, Mickey Arthur.

  The position of West Indies Men’s Head Coach became vacant when Phil Simmons resigned following the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup, and subsequently relinquished the post following the end of the West Indies tour of Australia last December.

  Andre Coley is the current interim head coach for the recent Test series in Zimbabwe and the current multi-format tour of South Africa.