Dubai: The Afghanistan Premier League (APL) — which was due to be held at the Sharjah Stadium this month — will not host its second edition. The first edition of the league was successfully held at the Sharjah Stadium but Snixer Sports, the commercial partners of the league, have failed to pay the rights money.
The league has been postponed until 2020. A statement from the Afghanistan Cricket Board said: “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.”
Snixer Sports feel that they have been terminated without any justification and hence a legal battle between Snixer and ACB is also likely to commence.
Speaking to Gulf News, Mazhar Khan, general manager of the Sharjah Stadium said: “We were ready to host the tournament and kept the ground vacant for the dates they suggested for the event. Unfortunately they have postponed the event.”
In the first edition of the APL held between October 5 and 21 at Sharjah Stadium players such as Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Andre Russell, Brendon McCullum and Rashid Khan were the icon players of the different teams.
It is understood that ACB has written to the Attorney General’s Office of the Government of Afghanistan to investigate the administrative allegations of corruption in the league as the board wants to remain committed to ensuring transparency in all its affairs and is accountable to all stakeholders. Many cricket leagues around the world are running into financial problems with players not being paid their appearance fees.
