Afghanistan Premier League

[jaybro]

The APL draft is on today 11 Zimbo’s have entered the draft

Hamilton
Mire
Burl
Vusi
Raza
Williams
Ervine
Waller
Mpofu
Blessing
Chigumbura

Surprised no BT, Cremer or Chatara.

Interested to see how many get picked

[TapsC]

Is it still happening next month? If thats the case then most of those guys wont be picked anyway because they will be on tour with the national team

[Mueddie28]

Is it still happening next month? If thats the case then most of those guys wont be picked anyway because they will be on tour with the national team

Vusi & Chigumbura can go because they won't make the squad unless Raza is excluded then Chigumbura makes it by default
M Waller is also available for Afghanistan

[jaybro]

Doesn’t look like anyone got picked up

Maybe that was why TapsC

It should be a top priority for ZC to get theirs own t20 premier league going, best way to make money in cricket but these dumb arses can’t figure that out

[Kriterion_BD]

It should be a top priority for ZC to get theirs own t20 premier league going, best way to make money in cricket but these dumb arses can’t figure that out

T20 leagues are an excellent way of looting money. The BPL did it for their first 2 seasons by not paying players and coaches before it was finally shelved and rebooted 3 years later.

But a T20 league is an expensive endeavor to begin with. You need franchises which require a big investment, I think IPL teams were being bought for 100 million apiece or something. Then you need adequate grounds and TV production capabilities. And the biggest factor is sponsorships. I am sure ZC would have wanted a league they continue to milk dry, but those ground realities make it a challenge.

SA has been trying to get a T20 league and Sri Lanka's proved to be unviable so its not easy to get a T20 league. No clue how Canada is managing one, although they must have outside financiers possibly from India or the Gulf. No way the Canadian market would warrant a T20 league.

[Jemisi]

Yeah, I am a bit suspicious about that Canadian league

[Googly]

We had a T20 league, organized by AC. It was a fair idea but ended up costing a lot of money. There just isn’t the interest in cricket here. One of the issues is gate money- if you charge anything meaningful nobody can/will come.
The next problem is lack of corporate interest.
The next is we don’t have T20 players of international repute, mainly because ZC don’t make this format part of our season, nor do touring sides play it very often when they come here. We play the minimum number of games to tick the boxes for the next ICC handout.
The reality is that games that should be profitable end up costing money, so the answer is to play as few as possible.
We’ve got problems that are now almost insurmountable.

[jaybro]

I’m curious to see how you think you can make money out cricket if t20’s isn’t the way?

Test matches don’t make money, 50 over cricket is dying so how do they make money?

Like all things you have to work within your means and I dare say some of these countries like South Africa & Sri Lanka are going outside of theirs to get their t20 leagues up and running against the best.

In the end of the day you make money from television rights and sponsorship, I’m sure if they got together a decent tournament they’d sell it world wide, fox sports in Australia bought the Hong Kong t20 league so I’m sure they’d buy the Zimbo one if it was priced right

[TapsC]

We were supposed to get a t20 league going again but the investors were apparently flagged for corruption. It definitely is an easy way of laundering money.

T20 cricket is the only format which will ever gain traction in Zimbabwe from a fans perspective. Funny how Richardson said the one thing that really saved us from being suspended was the big crowds for the qualifiers. I think a properly organized t20 league with big stars would attract crowds but really money in sport is made from TV rights not matchday crowds. As long as you can sell your product to international broadcasters you are business. This is why Asian leagues do well. The TV market there is huge

[Kriterion_BD]

Like all things you have to work within your means and I dare say some of these countries like South Africa & Sri Lanka are going outside of theirs to get their t20 leagues up and running against the best.

SA seems to be having real problems getting their league up despite the fact that most of the star players would be playing. I don't know what the exact issues are. Sri Lanka's league just wasn't profitable I don't think because its a third tier league meaning the only interest would be domestically and I don't think SL has the numbers to make such a league viable. the BPL has the exact same issue except that we still have enough of a fanbase to keep stadiums full and attract decent domestic sponsors.