21ST July 2022
The anticipated draft of the second edition of Kashmir Premier League was held at Aura Grande Enclave on Thursday, the exuberant event was graced by the presence of notable dignitaries such as the seven owners of all the KPL franchises, franchise teams, KPL management and the players.
Renowned TV Anchor Shehzad Khan opened the draft event and gave a brief pertaining to the draft procedure, a video of the last season’s prominent highlights was also displayed in the opening stages of the draft event. Legends like Shahid Afridi, Misbah Ul Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Saeed Ajmal, and Shoaib Malik, adorned the draft event with their presence.
The Draft Event officially launched its draft logo and the retained players of all franchises in their respective categories. The showcase event started off with a passionate welcome note of KPL President Mr. Arif Malik, who vowed to make the second edition of the league extravagant and grand. “The KPL management hopes that the second season of the Kashmir Premier League is turns out to be bigger and better than the inaugural season, after the hard work of our team, I can assure you that this year the broadcast spectrum will extend to 70 countries across the globe. The world may think that Kashmir is a red zone but we will prove that is the safest place on earth for cricket, AJ&K is deemed to become an international venue for cricket in the coming years”
President KPL Mr. Arif Malik, Chief Marketing Officer Saqib Ur Rehman and CEO Chaudhary Shahzad Akhtar presented souvenirs to all the franchise owners on stage.
Director Cricket Operations KPL, Mr. Rashid Latif, adorned the event with his presence and welcomed all the franchises for another stellar KPL season, which they will witness a much more improved cricket quality. “I have worked with Multan Sultans, Karachi Kings in the past as director cricket operations, however Mr. Arif Malik has shown me a new path to serve this nation and work for the betterment of this league, our aim is to make this league viable and stronger in a long-term plan and that can only be done with the support of quality coaches and induction of better-quality players, we hope that one day Kashmiri players from this league will serve the national team”
Renowned TV Anchor Shehzad Khan took the stage and proceeded the draft, all franchise teams picked the players in their respective categories, which included Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver, Emerging and a talented pool of Kashmiri players which made their berth in the draft through KPL registrations and trials. All the teams had already retained a maximum of five players prior to the draft event.
After each round, the franchise owners, players, team coaches alongside cricket commentators like Urooj Mumtaz and Tariq Saeed gave their valuable opinions and analysis pertaining to the picks in the studio.
The extravagant event ended with the review of all the teams which were finalized in the draft, which included one icon player, two platinum players, two diamond players, two gold players, four silver players, two emerging players and five Kashmiri players.
