KPL planning to stage matches of second season in England

An exhibition match is also planned at a major cricket venue in England to pay tribute to Shahid Afridi

March 22, 2022
Source: Exclusive

BIRMINGHAM: Organisers of Kashmir Premier League (KPL) are in discussion to stage last three matches, that is semi-finals and final, of the second season of the event in England. 

It was revealed by the KPL's President, Arif Malik and CEO, Ch Shahzad Akhtar in an exclusive interview on Tuesday after a roadshow event to promote KPL held here at Consulate of Pakistan.

They told Geo that plans are also been drawn to hold an exhibition match in May at a major cricket venue in England to pay tribute to star cricketer Shahid Afridi.

“Shahid Afridi has made a huge contribution to the game of cricket, not only in Pakistan but also around the globe. He is a trendsetter. To honour his services to the game of cricket we are planning to organise an exhibition match in England”, said the KPL President Malik.

He further shared that this match will be played between KPL Stars and England Stars and Afridi will be captain of one of the teams. He termed it like presenting a guard of honour to the cricket legend.

“All the superstars of KPL will be in action in that game. Two to three Kashmiri origin players will also play that match and it will be a huge moment for them too to feature along with some great players”, Malik added.

Meanwhile, Akhtar said that the plans are now to make this league a global event and for that reason they are in discussion to hold the semi finals and final match of the second season in England.

“The reason is that the largest diaspora of Kashmiri origin lives in the UK which is nearly one million now. So this will provide an opportunity to them too to see the players in action in KPL and also to meet them”, he said.

The CEO of KPL said that the cricketing talent is in abundance in Kashmir which can now use the platform of a global league like KPL. Plans are also made to hold a feeder league before the season two of KPL where in each team 10 out of 11 players will be Kashmiris.

“KPL will open the window of opportunity for more players to play and star in international leagues and county cricket around the world. We will also facilitate players from Kashmir to play and learn in England from KPL’s platform”, Ch Shahzad Akhtar told Geo.

“Players like Zaman Khan and Kashif Ali are two such players who have even proven themselves in the PSL which is now the biggest cricket brand of Pakistan were product of Kashmir Premier League”.

Responding to a question about challenges and issues faced during the inaugural edition of KPL, Malik said that the moment first ball was delivered in the tournament only then he realised that the league is actually happening. 

“The reaction which came from BCCI was totally unnecessary. We were only thinking about cricket and there was no politics involved. Broadcast service providers were pressurised to not to travel to Kashmir telling them that it was not a safe place and they can face security issues”.

“Even the production crew members coming from other countries and the companies who provide production technical services were also stopped.”, added Malik.

He said that foreign players were also pressurised to not take part in the league, but thanks to English spinner Monty Panesar who brought this issue in media when he made a statements in media only then everyone realised the amount of pressure those players were facing.

But despite of all these setbacks Malik said that he is very satisfied with overwhelming response received after the first edition of KPL.

“If you talk about numbers and stats and take the digital stats in consideration as well then I can easily say that we aware among the top three cricket leagues in the world. This was an honour for not only us but also for the whole of Kashmir”.

Malik told Geo that to double the impact created after the first edition the KPL administration is now focused on improving the quality of cricket and also to build up the capacity of Kashmiri players by providing them more training opportunities. And for this a cricket academy is being developed in Muzaffarabad, capital of AJK so that the players can be ready to feature not only in KPL but also in PSL and the Pakistan cricket team.

Talking about the changes in the second edition of KPL, Malik said that the biggest change will be the improvement in production quality. This time it’s going to be approximately 28 cameras production with designated cameras for run outs and super slow motion. Also discussions are made to bring in the Hawk eye and spider cam facilities as well in season two.

Both Malik and Akhtar said the reason to have these roadshows is more about raising awareness than promoting KPL.

Also as they want to give back something to the community so they want the number of oversees Kashmiri players to match the number of local Kashmiris players. So they decide to organise these roadshows in London, Birmingham, Barcelona and Frankfurt only to take the oversees Pakistani/Kashmiri community onboard.

“This time we are specially focusing on those Kashmiri players who are playing at first class county or similar levels in England. To bring more British born Kashmiri players in KPL we will be conducting two trails soon in Yorkshire and in Luton”, they told Geo.

“Both set of trials will be open and everyone would be able to participate in those. We have a very good example in Kashif Ali, he was man of the match in the final. To play along with someone like Afridi under his captaincy and to become man of the match in the final was a huge honour for him and a big credit for oversees Kashmiris”, they added further.

In this years edition of KPL the organisers are set to encourage a bigger number of oversees Kashmiris players from the UK.

As the number of teams has arisen to eight now in the league and it’s mandatory to have five Kashmiri players in each team it’s is estimated that around forty players from Kashmir or Kashmiri origin will feature in the second edition of KPL.

Malik and Akhtar said that they are glad that after the first edition’s success players are now taking KPL more seriously, they are training hard and are engaged more with the coaches to perform better in the second edition.

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