The Afghanistan Cricket Board has quietly pushed through a policy that caps its men’s players to three overseas T20 competitions per season, on top of their mandatory involvement in the Afghanistan Premier League, due to launch in the UAE around October 2026.
“Players will now be permitted to participate in the Afghanistan Premier League (APL), plus only three other international leagues per year. This measure aims to manage workload and ensure peak performance for national duties,” the board explained in a brief statement, adding that it wants to “protect player fitness and mental well-being”.
In straight terms, the ruling could cost headline names a decent chunk of income. Rashid Khan—still the leading wicket-taker in T20 cricket—currently turns out for MI Cape Town in SA20, MI Emirates in the ILT20, MI New York in Major League Cricket and Gujarat Titans in the IPL. The new ceiling means one of those gigs will have to go, unless the franchises find a loophole or the board offers an exemption.
Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and teenager AM Ghazanfar face similar maths, with league invitations arriving thick and fast. Agents are already wondering aloud, but no formal objections have been lodged.
Boards do police these things elsewhere. The PCB only lets its centrally-contracted players appear in two competitions outside the Pakistan Super League. England’s centrally contracted players need clearance from the ECB every time they take up a T20 deal. So the Afghan approach is hardly unprecedented, even if it lands a little suddenly.
For Afghanistan, the focus now shifts to on-field matters: a three-match T20I series against West Indies in the UAE, followed by a trip to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Whether the new policy keeps players fresher—or simply lighter in the wallet—will be clearer by then.
