Vice President Kashmir Premier League, Wasim Akram, has dispelled the notion that KPL and PSL are rival leagues, claiming that he has always insisted that the KPL is a development league that will feed players to the PSL.
While speaking to the media, Wasim Akram said, “People think KPL is in competition with PSL but that is not the case. I have always said that KPL is a nursery which will provide players to the PSL.”
The Pakistan Cricket Board issued a provisional no-objection certificate (NOC) last week for the second edition of the Kashmir Premier League, which will be held in Muzaffarabad from August 1st to August 25th, 2022.
While responding to a question regarding the success of the league, Akram stated, “KPL proved a stepping stone for players like Zaman Khan and Salman Irshad for getting included in PSL.”
Zaman Khan, also known as Pakistani ‘Malinga’, is a prime example of a KPL player who made his way to PSL after an impressive performance in the inaugural season of the league.
Expressing his views on the addition of the seventh team in the tournament, Wasim Wasim stated that it will give Kashmiri players a chance to show off their skills.
“The addition of the seventh team will give new players a chance and especially the Kashmiri players who want to make a name for themselves,” he concluded.
Interesting, because KPL was far more competitive and provided much better entertainment to an audience like ours that understands the sport to the point that every family has at least one member, who has played cricket at some professional level. There’s no reason to believe that the PSL can compete with the KPL. KPL is far superior. In fact, there can be a best of 7 playoffs with the winning teams at the end to prove this point. KPL teams would win 7-0. Arguing that the the KPL is some kind of a feeder system is intellectually flawed and not reflective of ground realities. The KPL also generated far more interest because of the very nature of the tournament being controversial in cricket’s largest market, India. The PSL with all of its foreign players and concerts couldn’t even remotely pull that off. Maybe if they followed up with Miandad, they had a chance. But their politically correct, mainstream posture is not well-liked by our young people, who absolutely loved the drama associated with the KPL, and not just for nationalistic reasons. Even a part-timer like Fahad Mustafa can play for a PSL team but he wouldn’t last a week in the KPL. I challenge Mr. Akram on both accounts: Winner of PSL vs. Winner of KPL, and draft Fahad Mustafa for at least one game.