APL is nothing more than club level cricket: Jalaluddin

By Arif Afzal Usmani 

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Pakistan’s former Test fast bowler and internationally acclaimed coach, Jalaluddin, has lashed out at the organizers of the ongoing American Premier League (APL) Cricket Tournament which has failed miserably in attracting the masses.

“APL has been founded in a dubious manner as the event organizers don’t have adequate experience of running franchise cricket which has its own demands and template. Franchise cricket tournaments are run on the basis of players participation and pumping of big money with both these elements clearly lacking in APL,” Jalaluddin, having relocated in the United States, commented in a brief chat with this scribe. 

“This event doesn’t seem to have any value. They had been granted the permission to hold the tournament on certain conditions which didn’t allow the participants of the Minor League to take part in this competition. APL is nothing more than club level cricket,” he reckoned.

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APL commence with local outfits at empty baseball grounds

By Arif Afzal Usmani

(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The American Premier League (APL) Cricket Tournament got off to a disappointing start as the spectators abstained from watching the action and the big baseball grounds remained deserted in the first three matches held on its opening day on September 21. 

The organizers had been claiming that the APL was going to become the greatest cricket event to be held in the United States but the presence of just a few hundred spectators in the first three games didn’t prove so. 

People had shown tremendous enthusiasm in collecting free tickets for the matches but they didn’t turn up to witness the matches. Even the presence of former Pakistan fast bowler Muhammad Asif in one of the participating teams could not lure people to visit the stadium. 

The organizers of the APL are attempting to reach the cricket enthusiasts by live streaming of action while a leading media organization, ARY, is also supporting the tournament but it has yet not succeeded in creating the kind of buzz which was being promised. 

The organizers of the APL consider theirs as the most successful cricket event in USA but the fact remains that the historic Double Wicket Championship organized by Worldwide Sports in New Jersey a couple of decades ago was a much bigger event which attracted huge media coverage globally as the action was televised live in 52 countries. The megastars of the era like Wasim Akram, Shahid Afridi, Vinod Kambli, Jimmy Adams and Sunil Joshi had taken part in the event.

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