Srinagar: The cricketing extravaganza in deserts of Saudi Arabia involving Kashmiris has begun on Friday. In the inaugural match of KPL-I, ‘Downtown Dynamites’ locked horns with Anantnag Avengers at Nofa Cricket Stadium. KPL-I has been started by Non Resident Kashmiris living and working in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It offers Kashmiris players a great chance to meet each other. Equally their families and friends also get chance to share rare movement of togetherness away from the home.
Besides a match between Downtown Dynamites Al-Kharaj and Anantnag Avengers Abha, two other matches are schedule later in the day—one between Srinagar Strikers Jeddah and Baramullah Bashers Nofa at 1:30 pm and in the third and the final match of the day, Rajbagh Royals Riyadh will lock horns against Rawalkot Rangers Jubail at 6 pm local time.
The matches can be watched live on fb.com/kplsaudi. All the match details including its fixtures, results, schedule and points will be updated daily on http://www.kplsaudi.com.
The people behind the inception of KPL in Saudi for Kashmiris include Samiullah Najar, Ishfaq Bhar and Dr. Sadaat Bashir.
The aim of this tournament is to meet all the Kashmiris living in Saudi on weekends and have a fun, they said.
Earlier, the KPL Trophy and the team jerseys were unveiled on October 6 in a well-attended opening ceremony held in Swiss Royal International Hotel in Riyadh.
CEO KPL Samiullah Najar said it was big moment for the Kashmiris who are living in Saudi to witness first of its kind sporting event in the kingdom.
“The tournament is being dedicated to all the Kashmiris who are working at many places in the world. This KPL will unite Kashmiris through facebook as we are expecting them to watch our matches,” said Najar. The KPL was first started in Dubai.