Pakistan Cricket Board is planning to organise a T20 league for cricketers under 19 years of age. The board chairman Ramiz Raja announced the U19 version of the Pakistan Super League that will be called Pakistan Junior League, a first at the age-group stage level in the history of the sport.
Junior players from across the world are expected to take part in the tournament, and the PCB chairman reckons it provides them the best opportunity and exposure early in their careers.
“It is primarily aimed at providing exposure to the youngsters in an environment of competition, opportunity and professionalism. They will be able to compete with the best in their peer group, will be coached by the best in the world and will have the best international stars in the dugout,”
Raja told Cricbuzz.
PCB is planning to soon launch the T20 league, and its inaugural edition could be played in October later this year. It is set to be a five-team tournament and is expected to last for around 15 days. There will be a draft system for the cricketers that will make sure they earn good enough money by playing for around two weeks.
While stressing that each team will have a mentor of the stature of Viv Richards, Raja also revealed that the planning for the tournament was going on for quite some time. He also kept the proposals in front of other boards during recent ICC meetings in Dubai, and they were quite receptive about the idea. This clarifies that overseas players from the age group could be seen traveling to Pakistan to play the PSL style league.
“Planning for this had been going on for quite some time, we have bounced the idea to our ICC colleagues during recent meetings in Dubai and they seemed quite interested in the project,”
Raja further said.
Highlighting the benefits of playing in such a league early in their careers, the PCB chairman felt that the players will get used to responding to pressure situations, and future stars can come up during the tournament.
Raja believes that by this, the players would get a better hang of the highest level, and the game situations would expose them to the environment, which will be demanding. The smaller league at this level would form the base for teams to recruit younger talent and graduate them to senior level.
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