The Afghanistan Premier League, the nation’s franchise-based Twenty20 competition that was shelved following its debut, is scheduled to return in 2025, according to the Afghanistan Cricket Board. After Balkh Legends emerged victorious from the first APL tournament, which featured five franchises in the United Arab Emirates in 2018, numerous attempts to revive the competition were unsuccessful.
Up to forty international players participated in the tournament’s inaugural edition, which was held at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium from October 5–21, 2018 Five teams, each named after an area in Afghanistan, have been chosen to compete. The tournament’s plans were accepted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in August 2018.
Afghanistan Cricket Board To Start APL from 2025
Naseeb Khan, the chief executive of ACB, is optimistic that the competition would take place after the upcoming Indian Premier League season, even if their hectic domestic and international schedule prevented them from relaunching it this season. “We are determined to re-launch the APL and working on it to make that happen,”
“We are hoping to start the tournament from next year as this year we don’t have much time because of our international commitments and domestic schedule and so we are hoping to re launch the APL at some time after the next IPL,” he said.
“We had a bidding process and lot of companies showed interest and now we had shortlisted some companies from the long list and now we will put it in the board and after getting approval we will start our next course of action,” he said.
“This year we have series against Zimbabwe, New Zealand and we have Emerging Asia Cup and tri-series of Under-19 and Under-19 Asia Cup so the schedule is very busy so it (APL season 2) cannot be hosted this year but next year we are eyeing to re-launch it,” he said.
The CEO of the ACB is upbeat despite recent indications from the Bangladesh Cricket Board that the July series against Afghanistan might not go ahead. The BCB had previously declared that they will be rescheduling their away all-format series against Afghanistan in July. After the T20 World Cup, ACB was supposed to host Bangladesh for two Tests, three ODIs, and three T20Is.
Later, the BCB received a revised itinerary from the ACB, which Cricbuzz was able to view. It states that three One-Day Internationals and the same number of Twenty20 Internationals will take place in Greater Noida from July 25 to August 6.
It is understood by Cricbuzz that the series is unlikely to happen in July, and BCB is anticipated to inform their counterparts of their position in the next few days. Other than this July, which is a part of the Future Tours Program, Naseeb said they have no other opportunity to host the white-ball series.
“Till now we have only confirmed the venue and we are talking regarding dates. The series is expected to be host in July as we only have this window and they also have only this window,” said Naseeb. “We have two Tests and there is heat during that point of time so we want to play the two Tests later but now we want to play the three ODIs and three T20Is in July.”
Afghanistan CEO Pleased To Have Home Ground In Kanpur
Naseeb is pleased to have Greater Noida back as their home ground, regardless of whether the white ball series against Bangladesh happens. Afghanistan’s home site would now be at one of two locations in Kanpur or Greater Noida, according to a recent BCCI announcement. The Afghanistan team is now prepared to host teams in India, having recently played most of their “home” games in the United Arab Emirates.
“India was our home ground before and we feel Greater Noida is our home ground. This is very important because the agreement that we had (with BCCI) three years back was renewed,” said Naseeb. “We are expected to host New Zealand and we are expected to host West Indies before the Champions Trophy though I am not sure whether we will host them here or elsewhere,” he said.
“You have seen in the World Cup that we have done well in Indian conditions and getting Greater Noida as our home ground is very important for us. We have renewed till Champions Trophy but we are working on it to extend it.”
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