London: Former South Africa batsman Hashim Amla has joined Mzansi Super League (MSL) franchise Cape Town Blitz as a batting consultant.
The second edition of the MSL starts on November 8, with the Blitz playing the opener against Jozi Stars in Johannesburg. But Amla will link up with the team, coached by Ashwell Prince, only on November 25, according to a club statement. By then, however, the Blitz would have played six of their ten group-stage games, ESPNcricinfo reported.
“Hashim has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the game and we’re really looking forward to him bringing that to our management team,” Prince said.
“There are obviously a few very promising young batsmen in our squad, and I think they will benefit immensely from having him around. It’s also an opportunity for him to explore whether a position such as batting consultant could be something that he might want to take up in the future. I have no doubt that he’d do a great job at it if he did,” he added.
The Blitz had earlier announced the signing of England allrounder Moeen Ali as cover for Pakistan paceman Wahab Riaz, who is away on national duty in Australia at the moment.
Recently Amla had signed a two-year Kolpak contract with the Surrey Cricket.
On August 8, Amla retired from all forms of international cricket. He played international cricket for almost 15 years. He went on to represent Proteas in 349 matches across all formats. He went on to make 18,000 runs including 55 centuries and 88 fifty-plus scores across all formats of the game.
He is the only South African to have scored a triple century in the Test format. He also has the highest Test score by a Proteas batsman against England, India and the West Indies.
In the shortest format of the game, the cricketer was able to reinvent himself, as he played 44 T20Is for the Proteas, scoring 1277 runs in them at an average of 33.60.