The Indian Heaven Premier League (IHPL) came to an abrupt end after a few games.
After all the runs he has accumulated at the international level and in franchise leagues around the globe, former West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle has been a part of something unreal. The West Indian cricketer was a part of the newly launched Indian Heaven Premier League (IHPL), which was being played in Srinagar-city.
However, the league went through an unusual occurrence days after it kicked off in the beautiful city of Jammu & Kashmir. It is understood that multiple officials and players of various teams in the league were not given their payments on time, following which the organizers of the league fled from the city overnight. This has raised several concerns.
Though the league has come to a jarring halt, some of the players and officials had been held inside their hotel rooms because of the organizers inability to fulfil the financial requirements of the stakeholders of the tournament. Having said that, it has been reported that West Indian star Chris Gayle checked out of the hotel on Saturday.
British umpire Mellissa Juniper spoke to the media about the happenings in the league, after the organizers fled the scene without informing anyone.
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As per an NDTV report, Parvez Rasool, who is the first cricketer from Jammu & Kashmir to represent India stated that some international players were not allowed to leave their accommodations, and the matter had to be escalated till the foreign diplomatic channels.
The tournament featured 32 international players including the likes of Chris Gayle and Jesse Ryder. However, the campaign saw some patterns, in which only the matches involving Chris Gayle attracted crowds to the stadium. The aggressive Wet Indian opener even recorded a video for the league, wishing at least 25,000-30,000 people to come to the Bakshi stadium to watch the action live.
That being said, it was not enough to attract crowds in the games that did not involve the Universe Boss. As a result, the organizers started having financial problems with the sponsors, who are reported to have pulled out from the tournament at the eleventh hour. The prices for the tickets were cut down, but that did not attract the crowds towards the stadium too.
As it stands, the Indian Heaven Premier League was not backed by either the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) or the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association. The tournament was only able to host 13 matches in total, with the last match being played on Sunday.
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