With the advent of franchise cricket, it is of little wonder that many cricket playing nations are embracing it in order to generate revenue and unearth gifted talents. The recent addition to this list is Afghanistan, who are set to start their own league in the form of Afghanistan Premier League.

It is, however, set to clash with Bangladesh Premier League as both of these tournaments are scheduled to be played in October. The APL will consist of five teams and will only have 23 games before a winner is decided.

An auction will take place in order to buy the teams, after which players will be picked via a draft. More than 40 foreign players are expected to play in the league to give it international exposure.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board Shukrullah Atif Mashal stated that the league will be played in the United Arab Emirates later this year. He added his joy at foreign players agreeing to play in the league as, according to him, they will help improve the standard of the league.

“Their presence will raise the quality of the league from the Shpageeza Cricket League that we organise at home. We are thankful to the overseas cricketers for helping Afghanistan Cricket rise to the next level,” he was quoted as saying by Business Standard.

Mashal also thanked the Government for their complete support: “We are grateful to our government for its support and encouragement. We believe we can provide our youth the platform to shine and move away from negative influences.” 

The Bangladesh Premier League will also begin from October and it will be interesting to see how they work things out given that Afghanistan players are a major component of the BPL.