First ever Asian Premier League T20 featuring international stars to be played in Nepal

Ultimate Sports Management (USM), an Indian sports company revealed their plans to organise the first ever Asian Premier League (APL) T20 tournament. The flagship event will take place in Nepal in association with National Sports Council (NSC) at the TU Cricket Ground from June 19 to July 4. The tournament will feature six franchise teams from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) studded with former and current international players. All the matches will be broadcast on Sony Six channel.

The tickets for the event go on sale on E-sewa 15th June onwards and are priced at Rs. 200 each. International Sporting Gear company Spartan, will be the gear partner for the tournament. It was initially planned to be held in Sharjah, UAE before deciding to shift it to Nepal. “We had decided to organize this tournament in Sharjah but we decided to shift it to Nepal given the cricket craze in this country,” said Chairman Mr. R.S. Dandiwal.

A total of 150 players have been drafted out of which 108 players will be selected by the team owners. The auction event is scheduled to take place at Hotel De’La Annapurna at 4 pm on 12th June. The players have been categorised into grades A, B and C with the base prices of Rs 30,000, Rs 20,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively. The auction will also include Nepali players. However, the organisers didn’t unveil the number of Nepali players to be kept in the auction.

The tournament offers a lucrative prize money of INR 25 lakhs to the winners, while the runner-up will bag a cash prize of INR 10 lakhs. An amount of 5 lakhs will be rewarded to the which places third. Apart from cash prizes, the Player of the Series will be awarded a car. There is also special prize ‘Entertainer of the Day’ which will be picked from the crowd.

Summary of the Teams

Afghanistan Bulls – The team will be captained by former Pakistani pacer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. Hasan is well known in the cricketing community known for his variety and has ample experience in T20 leagues all over the world. The team will be mentored by Pakistani opener Imran Nazir.

Bangladesh Tigers – Al-Amin Hossain will lead the team. The Bangladeshi pacer featured against Nepal in the ICC World T20 2014. Veteran South African batsman Justin Kemp will mentor the side.

Dubai Warriors – UAE international Abdul Shakoor will captain the team. Charles Coventry, who is famous for tying with Saeed Anwar by scoring the highest individual ODI score 194* will mentor the team.

Indian Stars –Innovator of the ‘Dil Scoop’, Tillakaratne Dilshan will be the captain of this side. The team mentor of this franchise is former Indian Test wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra.

Nepal Storms – UAE’s wicketkeeper-batsman Swapnil Patil will captain the team. English all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas will mentor the team.

Sri Lankan Lions – The Lions will be led by former Sri Lankan bowling allrounder Farveez Maharoof. The team is mentored by South African pacer Rusty Theron.

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