2021 Kashmir Premier League (Pakistan)

The 2021 Kashmir Premier League, was the inaugural season of the Kashmir Premier League which was established by the Pakistan Cricket Board. The tournament featured six teams and was held from 6 August 2021 to 17 August 2021 in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir. The opening ceremony and first match of the tournament were held at the Muzaffarabad Stadium on 6 August 2021.
The final was held on 17 August and saw Rawalakot Hawks defeating Muzaffarabad Tigers by 8 runs to win the first title. Asif Afridi of Rawalakot Hawks was awarded the man of the match award for his bowling figures of 3/21.

Franchises

Team	Owner	City	Captain	Coach
Bagh Stallions	Hameed Khan & Tauqir Sultan Awan	Bagh	Shan Masood	Abdul Rehman
Kotli Lions	Faisal Nadeem, Khalid Zia and Nasir Yousuf	Kotli	Kamran Akmal	Abdul Razzaq
Mirpur Royals	Adil Waheed & Suleman Raza	Mirpur	Shoaib Malik	Inzamam-ul-Haq
Muzaffarabad Tigers	Arshad Khan Tanoli	Muzaffarabad	Mohammad Hafeez	Mohtashim Rasheed
Overseas Warriors	Muhammad Zakir Ali	Kashmiri diaspora	Imad Wasim	Mushtaq Ahmed
Rawalakot Hawks	Jan Wali Shaheen	Rawalakot	Shahid Afridi	Arshad Khan

Squads

Bagh Stallions	Kotli Lions	Mirpur Royals	Muzaffarabad Tigers	Overseas Warriors	Rawalakot Hawks
Shan Masood Iftikhar Ahmed Umaid Asif Rohail Nazir Mohammad Ilyas Mohammad Imran Zeeshan Malik Usman Mughal Zeeshan Zameer Furqan Shafique Sufyan Moqeem Mohammad Junaid Amir Sohail	Kamran Akmal Asif Ali Usman Qadir Imran Khan Akif Javed Khalid Usman Irfanullah Shah Junaid Ali Abdullah Syed Syed Hashim Ali Hasan Raza Yasir Jan Abdul Rehman	Shoaib Malik Sharjeel Khan Khushdil Shah Mohammad Irfan Salman Irshad Amad Butt Mukhtar Ahmed Abrar Ahmed Muhammad Akhlaq Shadab Majeed Danyal Allah Ditta Muhammad Taha Ibtesam-ul-Haq Ammad Alam	Mohammad Hafeez Tillakaratne Dilshan Sohail Tanvir Sohaib Maqsood Mohammad Wasim Arshad Iqbal Zeeshan Ashraf Sohail Akhtar Usama Mir Anwar Ali Arsalan Arif Tahir Hussain Inzamam-ul-Haq Usman Arshad Taimoor Sultan	Imad Wasim Muhammad Musa Herschelle Gibbs Haider Ali Azam Khan Sohail Khan Qasim Akram Hammad Azam Naveed Malik Waleed Ahmed Raza-ul-Mustafa Abbas Afridi Rashid Naseer Uthman Ali Khan	Shahid Afridi Hussain Talat Ahmed Shehzad Danish Aziz Waqas Maqsood Zafar Gohar Bismillah Khan Imran Randhawa Kashif Ali Faisal Altaf Zaman Khan Samiullah Afridi Shahid Ilyas

Promotion in media

The league was promoted on social media by the hashtag #KheloAazadiSe. The brand ambassador of the 2021 KPL was Shahid Afridi and the official singer was Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Anthem

The official anthem of the KPL, “The Aazadi Anthem” was released on 16 February 2021 and it was sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan.

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place on the 6th of August 2021.

Venue

The whole tournament took place in Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir. Around 2,500 spectators were allowed to watch the match in stadium due to COVID-19.

Umpires

Points table

Summary

League progression

Fixtures

The schedule for the tournament was announced on 2 August 2021. The matches from 12 August onwards were rescheduled due to the Pakistan vs West Indies test series as the timings coincided with each other.
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Playoffs

Preliminary

Qualifier

Eliminator 1

Eliminator 2

Final

Statistics

Most runs

Source:
Most wickets
Source:
Awards

Individual awards

Name	Team	Award
Hussain Talat	Rawalakot Hawks	Player of the Tournament
Zeeshan Ashraf	Muzaffarabad Tigers	Best Batsman of the tournament
Asif Afridi	Rawalakot Hawks	Best Bowler of the tournament
Mohammad Wasim	Muzaffarabad Tigers	Best Fielder of the tournament
Bismillah Khan	Rawalakot Hawks	Best Wicket-keeper of the tournament
Salman Irshad	Mirpur Royals	Best Kashmiri of the tournament

Dream Team

Controversies

On 31 July 2021, it was reported that foreign cricketers were requested by the Indian cricket board against taking part in the inaugural Kashmir Premier League cricket tournament. Former Pakistani wicket keeper Rashid Latif tweeted that BCCI is warning other cricket boards that if their former players took part in Kashmir Premier League, they won't be allowed entry in India or allowed to work in Indian cricket at any level or in any capacity. Former South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs, who played for the Overseas Warriors, also accused BCCI of pressuring him to not play in the KPL. The Pakistan cricket board expressed displeasure at the reports that BCCI is trying to prevent players from joining the tournament and said that it would raise the issue with the relevant ICC forum. Responding to Gibbs and the PCB, the BCCI said that they are well within their rights to take decisions with respect to the cricketing ecosystem in India.
On 1 August 2021, former England spinner Monty Panesar pulled out of the tournament. He took to Twitter to reveal the news and said that, "I have decided not to participate in the KPL because of the political tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir issues. I don't want to be in the middle of this, it would make me feel uncomfortable." Panesar further said in an interview that "BCCI had 'advised' him that if he played in the event, the 'consequences' of his decision could include not being granted a visa to India in the future and not being allowed to work in the country."
On 2 August 2021, the BCCI urged ICC not to recognise the Kashmir Premier League due to the disputed nature of Kashmir region between India and Pakistan. In response, the ICC clarified that the tournament doesn't come under their jurisdiction as it is not an international tournament. The 2021 KPL received 15 million views within the first 5 matches and broke the record for Pakistan's most viewed live sports event launch on digital media. The President of the KPL, Arif Malik, said that the BCCI's efforts to stop the league only popularised it instead.
The KPL did not pay players for any player awards and end of the season awards. They later cleared all player related dues in June 2022.