Image courtesy of: Zee News

Afridi was offered a contract on the recommendation of Sammy

The St Lucia Zouks have offered Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi a contract to represent them in the inaugural edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) after he played an instrumental role in leading the national team to a 3-1 victory over the West Indies in their recent ODI series.

Afridi’s standout performance during the ODI series came in the first match, where he scored 76 runs off 55 balls and took a career-best seven wickets, while giving away just 12 runs.

Afridi confirmed that the Zouks had contacted him about signing a contract, despite the fact that he was not on the list of overseas signings.

“I am going through the contract and will see how it goes but I would love to play in such a big tournament because it is the first time they are having a professional T20 league with foreign participation in the West Indies,” Afridi said.

According to reports, the Zouks offered Afridi a contract on the recommendation of West Indies Test captain Darren Sammy.

If Afridi does sign the contract, he will join team-mates Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shahzad, Umar Akmal and Shoaib Malik, all of whom have already signed with different franchises.

The 33-year-old noted that the CPL would be provide him with a perfect opportunity to prepare for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe.

“These days I have decided to focus a lot on my batting as I realise now my fans and supporters expect a lot from me when I go out to bat,” he added. “In the past few years because of team requirements I had focused a lot on improving my bowling but I am now paying a lot of attention to my batting and spending lot of time in the nets.”