The American Premier League (APL) will go ahead with its inaugural Twenty20 tournament from Oct 6, 2009, even if the ICC refuses to sanction the league, the organisers confirmed on Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview with Dawn, Jay Mir, president of the organising American Sports & Entertainment Group Inc (ASEG), remained optimistic about the ongoing negotiations with the USA Cricket Association (USACA) while confirming that the New York City tournament is ‘good to go’.
“As we move forward with our negotiations, it is worth mentioning that we haven’t received a rebel status as yet,” Mir said. “The ICC has advised players and officials to stay away from the league until a concrete decision has been made and I think it is in the best interest of USACA, APL and for the development of the game in USA that this league gets sanctioned,” he added. “However, since we are not depending on the official go-ahead, the first tournament will be held even if the USACA refuses to approve it.”
The maiden APL Twenty20 tournament has attracted big name players from all over the world, especially the ICL recruits deprived of cricket following the league’s season cancellation due to the economic gloom. According to Mir, APL has succeeded in signing Inzamam-ul-Haq, Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat, Abdul Razzak, Taufeeq Umar and Shabbir Ahmed with Moin Khan acting as Premium Pakistan’s coach. It will be one of the six teams competing in the league.
“We have succeeded in recruiting Richard Hadlee as an executive consultant while also signing Graeme Hick, Nathan Astle and Adam Hollioake,” disclosed Mir.
When asked if the APL — as it seems to be following in the footsteps of ICL — could also be labelled a rebel league, Mir remained hopeful of the USACA’s decision and the fact that both organisations shared similar vision. “The reason behind ICL’s failure [due to financial reasons] was because they didn’t have backing from the national board [the BCCI]. I’m sure the decision-makers at the USACA are smart enough to understand that we also want to promote cricket in the United States and judging by the response we’ve had already, I can only imagine how successful we can be in achieving that goal.”
The tournament, due to played on a round-robin basis on the Staten Island Yankees baseball ground, will feature six teams vying for a semi-final berth that will be followed by best-of-three finals. Apart from Premium Pakistan, the tournament will comprise of an Indian, West Indian, American, Bangladeshi and a World XI.
According to Mir, the long term plan is to stage the tournament twice a year with locations varying across the continent. “Since our aim is to promote cricket, we have planned to stage the tournament across the continent from next year. It is a big event — an unprecedented event in fact in the history of the nation — and we want to ensure we launch is properly.”
The organisers’ keenness to get on with the league can be judged by the fact that, according to Mir, most of the sponsors have been confirmed, all participating teams have been finalised and that ASEG has received bids for television rights from multiple companies.
“The response has been phenomenal. We’ve had people enquiring about tickets already and offering their services to the league. There exists great excitement in the general public with regards to the tournament and what we’ve achieved in one month is just amazing,” said Mir. “We want to kickstart the game of cricket in the region and for that reason, I hope we get the USACA’s approval as players of this calibre do not deserve to be tagged as rebels.”
As the tournament details are released, a feeling of uneasiness has been felt around the cricketing world. Apart from the ICC cautions released last week, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) expressed its disappointment over Hadlees’ affiliation with APL. “’It’s regrettable that Hadlee has aligned with an unsanctioned and unofficial circuit,” Justin Vaughan, NZC chief executive, had told the Sunday Star-Times.
But Mir said the league will only promote the game in the US region through Hadlee’s services. “We will be promoting the game in the country with Hadlee,” Mir said. “Although cricket is being played across the continent, APL is serving as a door for the game to enter the US properly.”
© Faras Ghani 2009
Published in DAWN newspaper Apr 29, 2009
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