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Currently, there is a craze for franchise leagues in world cricket. Big Bash League (BBL) is going on in Australia, SA20 in South Africa and Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) in Bangladesh, while Women’s Premier League (WPL) is going on in India. Indian Premier League (IPL) and Pakistan Super League (PSL) will start after a few months. Meanwhile, Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) is going to start its T20 league – Afghanistan Premier League.

ACB also launched an Afghanistan Premier League in 2018. That year players like Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Shahid Afridi participated in this league. However, it was discontinued after just one season after payment problems and concerns about the integrity of the league emerged. ACB has decided to start a new franchise based T20 league with the same name. With the start of this league, the board has also decided to impose some restrictions on Afghan players.

Afghan players will be banned

The first season of Afghanistan Premier League will be played in October this year. This franchise-based T20 league with five teams will be organized in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). ACB says that now Afghan players will be able to play in only three foreign leagues in a year apart from their T20 league. The board has also approved this policy in its annual general meeting (AGM). ACB said in its statement that this policy has been brought to keep the players fresh.

Actually, there is a lot of demand for Afghan players in T20 leagues around the world. On an average, they participate in 4-5 T20 leagues a year. In such a situation, their work load will increase when Afghanistan’s own league starts. That is why the board wants them to play only 3 foreign leagues annually.

ACB said in its statement, ‘To protect the fitness and mental health of the players, the board has approved a new policy regarding foreign leagues. Now players will be allowed to participate in only three other international leagues annually apart from the Afghanistan Premier League (APL). The purpose of this step is to manage the workload and ensure best performance for national duty.

Which players will be shocked?

This policy of ACB will deal a huge blow to a superstar like Rashid Khan. They may lose crores of rupees. Rashid played in 4 T20 leagues in 2025. He has contracts worth crores in all these leagues. Saying no to any one league would result in huge financial losses. Apart from Rashid, the annual earnings of Mohammad Nabi, Noor Ahmed, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Azmatullah Omarzai will also be affected. See which Afghan stars participated in more than one league last year.