Glittering ceremony ushers in Afghanistan Premier League
sharjah — The Sharjah Cricket Stadium on a Friday night — it sounds pretty familiar. The historic venue has seen many an epic battle over the years and has been the place for many landmarks.
And on this sweltering Friday, it saw the birth of a new T20 League — the Gulbahar Afghanistan Premier League (APL).
A glittering opening ceremony with scintillating pyrotechnics and performances by celebrities from Afghanistan and India ushered in the new ‘baby’ into the T20 family.
The ceremony got going with the UAE National anthem — Ishy Bilady, which was followed by Afghanistan’s National anthem — Milli Surood.
Then, the new Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chairman Aziz Ullah Fazale, who was appointed recently after the long-serving Atif Mashal resigned to take up a different post assigned by the Afghanistan government, welcomed the crowd and thanked the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) and the Sharjah Cricket Club.
“Today is a good day for all Afghan people,” said Fazale.
“The ACB would like to thank the ECB and Abdul Rehman Bukhatir and Waleed Bukhatir for giving us the opportunity to use the Sharjah Cricket Stadium as the home of the APL,” he added.
Following his speech, the five teams — Kabul Zwanan, Paktia Panthers, Nangarhar Leopards, Balkh Legends and Kandahar Knights strode on to the ground.
The five captains — Rashid Khan of Kabul Zwanan, Mohammad Shahzad of Paktia Panthers, Ben Cutting, the interim captain of Nangarhar Leopards, Mohammad Nabi of Balkh Legends and Asghar Afghan of Kandahar Knights went on stage.
Waleed Bukhatir, Vice Chairman of the Sharjah Cricket Club, said: “On behalf of the ECB chairman Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan and Abdul Rehman Bukhatir, we wish the ACB a successful APL. All the best.”
The five captains then signed a bat, an oath to play the game in the ‘Spirit of Cricket.’
Asghar Afghan, who is also the National team captain said: “We thank the ACB for the league and the ECB for hosting us.”
Meanwhile, young leg-spinner Rashid Khan said: “We are very excited about the APL. It is a big achievement for the ACB and it is a wonderful platform for the players especially the youngsters of Afghanistan.”
It was followed by performances by a leading Afghan female singer and then Sajid Khan of the hindi music composing duo Sajid-Wajid.
Afghanistan singer Aryan Khan then depicted the unity and the warrior spirit of the Afghans
through a song.
Indian Actress Zareen Khan then danced to some Bollywood hits to wrap up the ceremony.
ACB CEO Shafiqullah Stanikzai said: “This evening is historic and unprecedented for Afghanistan cricket. We have not just Afghan players but stars from other parts of the world. We have done all hard work and faced challenges to make this a reality.”