APL delayed due to payment issue

KABUL: The second season of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) has been postponed to 2020 after the Afghanistan Cricket Board terminated the league’s Sanction and Commercial Rights Agreement with Snixer Sports over failure to pay the complete rights fees and “risks for the integrity of the league posed by people connected to Snixer Sports”. The tournament had been scheduled for October this year.

“The failure by Snixer Sports to pay the complete rights fees of the first edition as per the fees and payment schedule of the agreement, and concerns about risks for integrity of the league posed by people connected to Snixer Sports are the reasons for termination that form material breaches of the agreement,” the ACB said in a statement.

The board also said that it had written to the Attorney General’s Office of the Government of Afghanistan to “fully investigate the administrative allegations of corruption in the league” and that it remained committed to “ensuring transparency in all its affairs and is accountable to all stakeholders.”

A tender for sanction and commercial rights to the second season of the league will be issued in due course.

Following the signing of the tournament’s MoU in January last year, the first edition of the league was held between October 5 and 21 in Sharjah, UAE and featured a host of international names. Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Andre Russell, Brendon McCullum and Rashid Khan were picked as icon players by the five franchises, representing Paktia, Kabul, Balkh, Nangarhar and Kandahar.

The Afghanistan league is the second T20 league to run into problems in as many months.

In August, the inaugural season of the Euro T20 Slam was cancelled, only two weeks prior to its scheduled start.