Irfan, Boucher, Waqar among support staff for inaugural Afghanistan Premier League
Rashid Khan and Azmatullah Omarzai will be among the five captains • AFP/Getty Images
The revamped franchise-based T20 league announced the captains, head coaches and mentors for the five teams on Monday. The next step is the players' draft, which will be held on November 3 in Dubai. Some top international names who have registered are Wanindu Hasaranga, Reeza Hendricks, Romario Shepherd, Rovman Powell, Imran Tahir, Akeal Hosein, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Kusal Perera, Imam-ul-Haq, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Charith Asalanka, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan and Sahibzada Farhan.
- Kandahar Warriors: Rashid Khan (captain), Ravi Bopara (head coach), Irfan Pathan (mentor)
- Akcel United Kabul: Azmatullah Omarzai (captain), Shane McDermott (head coach), Nikhil Chopra (mentor)
- Nangarhar team: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (captain), Toby Radford (head coach), Mark Boucher (mentor)
- Paktia team: Rahmat Shah (captain), Azhar Mahmood (head coach), Waqar Younis (mentor)
- Balkh team: Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Mickey Arthur (head coach), Tillakaratne Dilshan (mentor)
The line-ups of captains and head coaches were finalised at a leaders' draft held last week, with competition slated to start on December 27. Farveez Maharoof, the former Sri Lanka allrounder, hosted the draft along with the five mentors, who picked their captains and coaches across two rounds.
Close to 1500 Afghan and international players had registered for the draft, the Afghanistan Cricket Board said in a statement, which was later pruned to 462 players for the draft pool for Tuesday. The players will be picked in the Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging categories.
As per the rules, the squad sizes have been set to 19 "active players" with a core draft squad of 17 and up to two additional players in the supplementary round. The recommended minimum requirement for Afghan or local players is 12 with a minimum of six and a maximum of seven overseas players. In the playing XIs, there can be between three and four overseas players. There will also have to be a minimum of seven Afghan/local players including at least one emerging player, in the XIs.
The franchise salary cap is set at US$725,000 for player remuneration. Some of the other draft rules are:
- At least one of the two Diamond category players must be from Afghanistan
- Each franchise must select at least one overseas player in the Platinum category and at least one overseas player in the Diamond category
- Each franchise must pick at least three overseas players within the first nine Draft selections
- Up to one additional overseas player may be selected in the supplementary round (keeping in mind the maximum of seven)
- Each franchise shall have one proposed wildcard pick
The ACB had launched an Afghanistan Premier League in early 2018 as well, But only one season of that league was played between five teams. High-profile names such as Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Shahid Afridi were part of the action, but it was discontinued following payment issues and concerns around the league's integrity started emerging.
Though there is no official update on the venues, it is understood that the inaugural season of the revamped Afghanistan Premier League will not be played in Afghanistan but in the UAE.
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