APL T20 Launched in Dubai: Identity, Roadmap and Five Teams Unveiled

The launch took place at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi in Dubai on 20 December 2025. The Afghanistan Cricket Board announced the league there, with chairman Mirwais Ashraf and chief executive Naseeb Khan named alongside the announcement. Rashid Khan, Hashmatullah Shahidi and Rahmanullah Gurbaz were named at the launch as well.

What the launch set out was the league itself: its brand, its format and its roadmap. The roadmap runs for 10 years, and the commercial side is a 10-edition partnership. The partners named were Trans Group and ITW MEA, working through Cricket Venture, a joint venture of Trans Group and ITW Universe. Vivek Chandra, a director at ITW, and Rao Usman Hashim Khan, chief operating officer at Trans Group, were also named.

The league will start with five teams. That was the model announced in Dubai: five franchises, with the identities of those franchises, the commercial partners and the auction or draft to be covered in the next phase. Nothing about the five clubs themselves was settled at the launch.

At the time, the plan was for the first season to be played in September and October 2026 in the UAE, with the draft proposed for June and July 2026. That timetable did not hold. The draft was held on 3 November 2026 in Dubai — see the draft results, and the first match is 27 December 2026.

The launch was the starting point, not the finished product. It set out the league's brand, format and roadmap, and left the teams, the partners and the draft to be announced after it. Those announcements followed through 2026, and the season that was planned in Dubai opens on 27 December.