Latif, city government join hands for Karachi Champions League

[Pakistan-India]

here comes what everyone be waiting for!:--D Former Pakistan wicketkeeper Rashid Latif and the Karachi city government have come together to launch, from next week, what might be the most lucrative club tournament to have been played in Pakistan. The Karachi Champions League, a Twenty20 league, for the leading clubs of the city will begin next week with Rs 10 million (around USD 117,200) as the top prize for the winners. The tournament, a brainchild of Latif and the Rashid Latif Cricket Academy (RLCA) will feature a number of Karachi-based international players, as well as a host of domestic cricketers. Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Khalid Latif, Fawad Alam, Khurram Manzoor and Sarfraz Ahmed, among others, will be playing. "It was an old idea of mine, one that I had been working on," Latif, who captained Pakistan as well, told Cricinfo. "I am a big follower of English football and I love the history of clubs over there, like Chelsea and Fulham. We have so many old clubs in Karachi and we need to revive that club culture once again here." will we see Pakistan premier league next year:yay: The idea was put into practice after Latif ran the idea by the city's mayor Mustafa Kamal during what was supposed to be a five-minute meeting. "We ran the idea by him and he agreed after a minute," Latif said. The prize money has been put up by Kamal's city government; as well as the winning club getting Rs 10 million, the runners-up will receive Rs 5 million (around USD 58,900), the semi-finalists Rs 500,000 (around USD 5900) each and the quarter-finalists Rs 250,000 (around USD 2900). All told there is Rs 17 million (nearly USD 200,000) in prize money at stake, easily the most lucrative local tournament in the country's history. The tournament is expected to last nearly a month and will be played at various grounds around the city that are supervised and run by the RLCA. Malir Gymkhana, North Nazimabad CC, Korangi Al-Fatah CC and Airport Gymkhana are some of the more renowned 16 clubs in the tournament and each will be allowed only one international player. The tournament will be televised on Geo Super, a local sports channel and plans are already underway to make it a national league - the Pakistan Champions League. "Karachi is the financial centre of Pakistan and a lot of MNCs are based here," Latif said. "The plan is to get them to sponsor a club each. Next season we will introduce player trading and hopefully in time, it can be pushed to a national league."

[Holysmoke]

:hysterical:

[urbestfriend]

Goodluck

[DomainK]

Interesting. The government of Pakistan has been such a shameful failure in managing normal domestic cricket and now they are starting another league? Where did the money come from? They don't have money for water for the players in some domestic tournaments but they have to capital to start a league with 'lucrative' reward for the winners. It will be interesting what they do with this.

[urbestfriend]

Interesting. The government of Pakistan has been such a shameful failure in managing normal domestic cricket and now they are starting another league? Where did the money come from? They don't have money for water for the players in some domestic tournaments but they have to capital to start a league with 'lucrative' reward for the winners. It will be interesting what they do with this.

What govt of Pak has anything to do with managing domestic cricket? It is PCB which runs domestic tournament!! But according to this article, they are going to find sponsors for every team and prize money is given by Karachi city governement. Its not a big deal. even KSCA( karnataka state cricket association) runs its own t-20 league called KPL and sold the tourney for 15 crores to Mantri real estate!! All teams were sold for 2-3 crores!

[achilles]

Pardon me plz, but at first when I read this thread's title, I thought it was one of the users doing satire and poking fun :winky:. But this is actually true. Good for Pakistan. I really the respect the fact that they are working so hard to get back on their feet and to see Rashid Latif help out, is really heartening, given that all the Great & more affluent cricketers there have only spoken and criticized, not done a thing. I Salute you Rashid Latif !

[coffee_rules]

Good one. I will support the Mohajirs' team.

[DomainK]

What govt of Pak has anything to do with managing domestic cricket? It is PCB which runs domestic tournament!! But according to this article, they are going to find sponsors for every team and prize money is given by Karachi city governement. Its not a big deal. even KSCA( karnataka state cricket association) runs its own t-20 league called KPL and sold the tourney for 15 crores to Mantri real estate!! All teams were sold for 2-3 crores!

And unlike BCCI, PCB is directly controlled by their government.

[Fontaine]

Good! Let the drug injecting, ball tampering, infighting, cheats play in their own seperate retarded league.

[Pakistan-India]

Good! Let the drug injecting, ball tampering, infighting, cheats play in their own seperate retarded league.

Pakistan

[urbestfriend]

And unlike BCCI' date=' PCB is directly controlled by their government.[/quote'] Not PCB's finances.

[Sachinism]

Leading clubs in the city??? Not even country :hysterical:

[Show_stopper]

meh, KPL is better:winky:

[Aaku]

:hysterical:

[Pak_Forever]

Great initiative. :two_thumbs_up:

[vvvslaxman]

So no more Afridi bank vs Salman butt bank matches?

[king2be98]

Once again Indians making fun where possible, however respect to achilles for his post which is a fair analysis. Pakistan need some domestic competitions to try and get interest in the game going again. Pakistan don't have the luxury of such a huge population or money like India, so they will always struggle to generate anywhere near the same interest, but nevertheless it doesn't mean they shouldn't be looking to do anything at all. Good luck with it. But like I said many times, not only do they have to put a competition in place, they'll have to make sure the surfaces are ripe green with plenty of grass and bounce to try and provide proper batsmen who can play the short ball.

[rahulrulezz]

Good Idea...It can be very good for their country..We know that they have very talented players..This league can easily help their country to bring that hidden talent in open..Although they really need to work on their prize money if they want to attract big stars...1 crore for the whole winner team is way too less for such a leage..In IPL 1, Afridi earned close to 5 crore alone..and players like Dhoni, KP, Flintoff alone earn around 50 crore per IPL season

[Pakistan-India]

Good Idea...It can be very good for their country..We know that they have very talented players..This league can easily help their country to bring that hidden talent in open..Although they really need to work on their prize money if they want to attract big stars...1 crore for the whole winner team is way too less for such a leage..In IPL 1' date=' Afridi earned close to 5 crore alone..and players like Dhoni, KP, Flintoff alone earn around 50 crore per IPL season[/quote'] lala ji its not ipl its a league only restricted to one city, and all info provided above with the prize money and everything is only related to the history of karachi clubs only.

[yoda]

Good Idea...It can be very good for their country..We know that they have very talented players..This league can easily help their country to bring that hidden talent in open..Although they really need to work on their prize money if they want to attract big stars...1 crore for the whole winner team is way too less for such a leage..In IPL 1' date=' Afridi earned close to 5 crore alone..and players like Dhoni, KP, Flintoff alone earn around 50 crore per IPL season[/quote'] 50 crores? 1 mill ~ 4.5 crores 1.5 mill (dhoni, flintoff, ...) ~ 7 crores