ETPL: Who are the Belfast Wolves and Dublin Guardians in new European T20 league?

After much talk and a few false dawns, a European franchise league will finally get under way this week.

The European T20 Premier League (ETPL) will be run in collaboration with the cricket boards of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands with big names such as Rahul Dravid and Steve Waugh all involved in off-field roles.

There will be a number of high-profile players in action too.

Of the six teams, one will be based in Dublin and one, notionally, in Belfast - more on that later - with the pair playing each other in their first game on Thursday.

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Both the Wolves and Guardians will feature a mix of familiar names from the local and international scene.

The Wolves, who have adopted a motto of "family, fearless, and fun", will be captained by experienced Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell.

IPL veteran David Miller, who has a 35-ball T20 century to his name, and New Zealand wicketkeeper Devon Conway will be relied upon to provide spark in the order.

The bowling attack, meanwhile, will boast the talents of Chris Jordan whose various claims to fame include being a World Cup winner, taking more T20 wickets for England than anyone not named Adil Rashid, and being a former school-mate of Rihanna.

There will be a strong local presence too with Mark Adair, Matthew Humphreys and Ireland's one-day captain Paul Stirling among their number.

That trio will be joined by international team-mates Gavin Hoey, Tim Tector and Lorcan Tucker, some of whom no doubt may find it a touch strange to be playing against a team representing Dublin.

The Guardians own Irish contingent will be provided by Craig Young, Matthew Hollard, Josh Little, George Dockrell, Benjamin Calitz and Harry Tector.

They will be supplemented by New Zealand's Daryl Mitchell who, fresh from his unbeaten Test century against England at Trent Bridge in June, will be one of the league's star attractions, while former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was announced as captain and mentor of the side in July.

The competition will run from 26 August to 20 September in a double-round robin format. The first half of the pool stage will be staged in the Netherlands with the second round of games taking place in Dublin.

That means that the Belfast franchise, along with those in Glasgow and Edinburgh, will not play at home in the first year of the competition.

Already, however, there have been talks about potentially staging games at Stormont in future seasons.

The first Belfast versus Dublin derby will be played in Voorburg on Thursday with the "reverse" fixture taking place at Malahide in Dublin on 9 September.

What about the other Ireland players involved?

The Irish internationals will be spread further afield than just the Belfast and Dublin franchises.

Jordan Neill and Curtis Campher will be team-mates of Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh and Tim David with Amsterdam, while Jai Moondra parlayed his recent international exposure into a first-round draft selection by Rotterdam Dockers where he will team up with Faf Du Plessis.

Gareth Delany and Ross Adair will represent the Edinburgh Castle Rockers, with the latter set to first go head-to-head with his brother Mark on 2 September.