Rashid Khan will lead Kandahar Warriors into the revamped Afghanistan Premier League, with former internationals Irfan Pathan, Mark Boucher and Waqar Younis among the five mentors confirmed for the league’s five franchises on Monday, 2 November 2026.
Afghanistan Cricket Board officials confirmed the captains, head coaches and mentors for all five teams on Monday, a day before the players’ draft in Dubai on Tuesday, 3 November. Competition is scheduled to start on 27 December, and the revamped league is understood to be played in the United Arab Emirates rather than in Afghanistan, although no official venue update has been given.
Why the announcement matters is that it gives the revived league its leadership structure at last. Mentors, coaches and captains were finalised through a leaders’ draft held last week, so the five franchises can now build full squads around known leaders instead of starting the player draft with only team names in place.
Pathan, the former India all-rounder, will mentor Kandahar Warriors, where Rashid Khan is captain and former England all-rounder Ravi Bopara is head coach. Azmatullah Omarzai will captain Akcel United Kabul, with Shane McDermott as head coach and Nikhil Chopra as mentor.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz will lead the Nangarhar team, where Toby Radford is head coach and former South Africa wicketkeeper-batter Mark Boucher is mentor. Rahmat Shah will captain the Paktia team, with Azhar Mahmood as head coach and former Pakistan fast bowler Waqar Younis as mentor. Ibrahim Zadran will head the Balkh team, coached by Mickey Arthur and mentored by former Sri Lanka batter Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Former Sri Lanka all-rounder Farveez Maharoof hosted the leaders’ draft alongside the five mentors, according to the reports of the announcement. Captains and coaches were picked across two rounds during the week of 25 October, a process that put experienced international names in charge of each dressing room before a single player had been drafted.
Five teams, five leadership groups
Each leadership group pairs a current Afghanistan star with a coach and mentor from outside the country, except for the Kabul and Paktia combinations, which mix local captains with overseas coaches and mentors. Kandahar’s combination looks the most high-profile on paper, with Rashid Khan, one of the most recognisable names in world Twenty20 cricket, working with Pathan, who also served as an ambassador for the franchise before this announcement.
Nangarhar’s pairing of Gurbaz with Boucher brings together an aggressive opening batter and a former South Africa captain and coach, while Balkh’s pairing of Zadran with Arthur and Dilshan gives the youngest leadership group two of the most experienced heads in the league. Paktia’s group, with Rahmat Shah, Azhar Mahmood and Waqar Younis, leans heavily on Pakistan cricket experience, and Kabul’s group, with Omarzai, McDermott and Chopra, is the least decorated of the five on playing reputation alone.
Franchise owners have not yet been announced, ESPNcricinfo reported, adding that it understands the owners are likely to be announced on Tuesday, the same day as the player draft. That leaves one commercial question open even as the cricket structure is now settled.
Draft rules, squad sizes and salary cap
Close to 1,500 Afghan and international players registered for the draft, the Afghanistan Cricket Board said in a statement, and that list was later cut to 462 players for the draft pool. Pajhwok put the shortlisted figure at around 450 players, a small difference that reflects rounding in different reports of the same pool.
Players will be picked in the Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging categories. International names registered for the Dubai draft include Wanindu Hasaranga, Reeza Hendricks, Romario Shepherd, Rovman Powell, Imran Tahir, Akeal Hosein, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Kusal Perera, Imam-ul-Haq, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Charith Asalanka, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan and Sahibzada Farhan.
Squad sizes have been set at 19 active players, with a core draft squad of 17 and up to two additional players in a supplementary round. At least 12 players in each squad must be Afghan or local players, with a minimum of six and a maximum of seven overseas players. Playing elevens must include between three and four overseas players, and at least seven Afghan or local players, including at least one emerging player.
Draft rules also require at least one of the two Diamond-category players to be from Afghanistan, at least one overseas player in the Platinum category and at least one overseas player in the Diamond category, and at least three overseas players within the first nine draft selections. Up to one additional overseas player may be selected in the supplementary round, subject to the maximum of seven, and each franchise will have one proposed wildcard pick.
Franchise salary caps have been set at US$725,000 for player remuneration, a figure that underlines the league’s modest scale compared with the world’s biggest Twenty20 leagues, and one reason why the mentor and coaching appointments carry extra weight in attracting players.
A league returning after 2018
Afghanistan Cricket Board chief executive Naseeb Khan has brushed aside suggestions that the tournament could be postponed, telling Cricbuzz that the board remains fully committed to delivering the league as planned. “The Afghanistan Cricket Board remains fully committed to delivering the APL as planned. As everyone is aware, the league is being revived after a considerable period, and we have therefore taken a careful and strategic approach to selecting our commercial partner and franchisees,” he said.
Naseeb Khan also confirmed the timetable that now frames the next two months, saying the league will officially commence on 27 December 2026 with five teams, after a player draft that had been scheduled for late October and is now set for 3 November in Dubai. Pajhwok reported that the draft ceremony will begin at 3pm local time on Tuesday, citing Afghanistan Cricket Board spokesman Sayed Naseem Sadat in a Facebook post.
History explains why officials are stressing commitment. Afghanistan Cricket Board launched an Afghanistan Premier League in early 2018, but only one season was played between five teams, with high-profile names such as Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and Shahid Afridi involved, before the league was discontinued following payment issues and concerns around its integrity.
What is confirmed now is the leadership of all five teams, the draft date and place, the squad rules and the 27 December start. What is not confirmed is the franchise owners, the venues, and the full fixture list, all of which will need to follow the draft before the revived league can be judged on anything more than its names. Tuesday’s draft in Dubai, with 462 players in the pool and five captains already in place, is the next test of whether the revival holds to its timetable.
