The Pakistan Junior League (PJL) was a professional 20-over cricket league contested by Under-19 teams representing different cities of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. The league was soft-launched on 14 April 2022 by the

Pakistan Cricket Board The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), formerly known as Board of Control for Cricket in Pakistan (BCCP), is a sports governing body for cricket in Pakistan responsible for controlling and organising all tours and matches undertaken by the Pakistan ...

(PCB) Chairman,

Ramiz Raja 'Ramiz Hasan Raja (; born 14 August 1962) is a Pakistani cricket sports commentator and former cricketer who served as the 36th Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) from 2021 to 2022. He played international cricket for the Pakistan na ...

. The only installment, the 2022 Pakistan Junior League (also known as PJL1), was played from 6–21 October 2022, featuring six teams and 19 games, at

Gaddafi Stadium Gaddafi Stadium formerly known as Lahore Stadium, is a cricket stadium in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan, owned by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). With a capacity of 34,000, it is the List of cricket grounds in Pakistan, largest c ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

. Draft for the league was held on 8 Sep 2022, 24 foreign players from nine different countries were selected by teams along with 66 local players. It featured six teams playing 19 games in a round robin league format, at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. It was the first international league to exclusively consist of junior cricketers. Bahawalpur Royals beat Gwadar Sharks in the final on 21 October and became the inaugural and only champions of the PJL. The league was dissolved in December 2022.

History

Conception

Shortly after his promotion to the position of PCB Chairman in September 2021, Ramiz Raja outlined his plans to improve cricket in Pakistan. Highlighting that the board needed to facilitate the transformation of young cricketers into world-class players, he expressed the desire to introduce an 'Under-19 T20 World League'. Over the following months, further details of this vision were outlined and Raja described his aspiration to expand the already successful

Pakistan Super League The Pakistan Super League (PSL), also known as HBL PSL for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Pakistan, organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Founded by the PCB in 2015, the league features six city-bas ...

(PSL) into two additional versions tailored to youth cricket and women's cricket. At the 67th Board of Governors meeting in December 2021, Pakistan's ''Pathway Cricket Foundation'' was identified as an initiative that would look to nurture 100 young cricketers in preparation for the upcoming launch of an 'U-19 PSL'.

Launch

On 14 April 2022, the PCB, through their official website, announced the launch of the PJL. The announcement was accompanied by a statement from Raja who confirmed the inaugural season would take place in October 2022. In addition, the PCB had initiated the process to secure title, category sponsorships, live streaming providers and franchise owners. The competition was to be a city-based league with players selected through a draft system. The PCB planned to involve international age-group cricketers from various nations as well.

Marketing

The season's logo variant was unveiled with the

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#Next11 and #PJL also being used on social media. The tournament was broadcast live on PTV Sports and live streamed on Geo Super’s App and Geo Super’s YouTube and Facebook pages in Pakistan. Live streaming was made available on the PCB YouTube/Facebook and PJL YouTube/Facebook channels for the rest of the world. The tournament broadcast was done through a 22 camera full HD production including enhancements such as Buggy cam and drone camera. The commentary panel for the inaugural edition included prominent commentators

Daren Ganga Daren Ganga (born 14 January 1979) is a former Trinidadian cricketer. He was a right-handed top order batsman and part-time right-arm off spinner. He was named the 2006 West Indies Players' Association 'Test player of the year', Ganga captaine ...

Dominic Cork Dominic Gerald Cork (born 7 August 1971) is a former English county and international cricketer. Cork was a right-handed lower-order batsman who bowled right-arm fast-medium, and was renowned for his swing and seam control. In 1995, he took ...

and

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. Former Pakistan captain

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, former

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player

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and seasoned broadcaster

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was also a part of the panel. Roha Nadeem was the presenter.

Dissolution

The Pakistan Junior League was dissolved by the newly appointed PCB Management Committee on 31 December 2022. It was dissolved after the first edition had cost approximately 997 million and had earned returns of 190 million, causing losses of 4 million.

Teams

On 30 August 2022, PCB announced the names of the six teams for the inaugural edition of the Pakistan Junior League, each representing one city of Pakistan. These names were different from those used by the teams of the Pakistan Super League. Although the PCB had initially had planned a franchise model similar to that of PSL, it decided to take up the ownership of the teams itself after the base price set up for the ownership of teams was not met by the bidders.

Draft

The draft for the league was held on 8 September 2022. 24 overseas players from nine different countries were selected by teams along with 66 local players. The opening ceremony and first match of the tournament was held at the

on 6 October 2022. The 2022 PJL cost 997 million and incurred losses of 4 million which caused the PJL to be dissolved by the newly appointed PCB management committee.

Venues

All the matches of the PJL took place at

League stage

Format

The six teams played 5 matches each and got 2 points for every win, none for a loss and 1 point for a no result. The top four teams in the group stage qualified for the play-offs. A warm-up match was played between Hyderabad Hunters and Rawalpindi Raiders in which Hyderabad Hunters defeated Rawalpindi Raiders by 7 wickets.

Points table

* The top 4 teams qualified for the

Playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

* Advanced to

Qualifier 1 Qualifier may refer to; * Qualifier (sport), a tournament elimination round * Grammatical modifier, in linguistics * Type qualifier, in computer programming See also *Qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Bas ...

* Advanced to

Eliminator Eliminator may refer to: People and characters *The Eliminators (band), a band which covered " The Saint" from '' Surfbeat Behind the Iron Curtain, Volume 1'' *The Eliminators, a professional wrestling tag team that consisted of John Kronus and P ...

League progression

: :

Fixtures

The PCB confirmed the fixtures for the tournament. ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Playoffs

Qualifier 1

Eliminator

Qualifier 2

Final

Team of the tournament

*Basit Ali * Tayyab Arif *

Shevon Daniel Shevon Daniel (born 15 March 2004) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer who currently plays limited overs cricket for the national team. His elder brother Jehan Daniel is also a cricketer. Biography He pursued his primary and secondary ed ...

* Luc Benkenstein * Haseeb Khan *

Arafat Minhas Arafat Minhas (Urdu: ; born 2 January 2005) is a Pakistani cricketer who plays for the Pakistan national cricket team, Pakistan cricket team and Karachi Kings. Minhas bowls Left-arm orthodox spin, left arm orthodox . Early career Minhas was b ...

( c) * Arham Nawab * Abidullah * Shawaiz Irfan ( wk) * Mohammad Zeeshan * Mohammad Ismail * Matthew Tromp ( 12th man)

Results

The only champions were Bahawalpur Royals, who defeated Gwadar Sharks in the final.

References

External links

Pakistan Junior League
at

PCB PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * P ...

Series home
at

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{{Twenty20 leagues Defunct cricket leagues Cricket leagues in Pakistan 2022 establishments in Pakistan