Andhra Premier League Season 4 action to begin on Aug 8

The season will see participation from seven franchises (one more than in the last edition) and over 520 players, compared to 430 in the previous season. The players are classified into four Grades. Grade A 21, Grade B 112, Grade C 378, Top seed - including nine players who played in the IPL or Team India

Hyderabad: The Andhra Premier League (T-20) Season 4 is set to be conducted on a bigger scale, with more professionalism and prestige from August 8 than the previous edition, according to APL governing council chairman RV Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao.

“This season will see participation from seven franchises (one more than in the last edition) and over 520 players, compared to 430 in the previous season. The players are classified into four Grades. Grade A 21, Grade B 112, Grade C 378, Top seed – including nine players who played in the IPL or Team India,” he informed the media in Visakhapatnam.

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ACA secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Sana Satish Babu was also present at the media briefing in Visakhapatnam. “The player auction for APL Season 4 will be held on July 14 at Radisson Blu Hotel (Vizag),” he said.

It is also informed that ACA will soon launch its own women’s T20 league, funded entirely by the association.

Ranga Rao said that the APL aimed to provide a platform for rural cricketing talent and bring them to the limelight. He said that the franchise fees had increased from Rs 75 lakhs in earlier seasons to Rs 2 crores this year, indicating growing interest and value in the league.

Ranga Rao said that the league will continue to discover talented cricketers like Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who made headlines during the IPL. “Players performing well in APL will be given opportunities to represent Andhra in Ranji Trophy matches,” he said.

For his part, Satish Babu said that all the 25 matches this season would be hosted in Visakhapatnam and from next year the matches would be distributed across Mangalagiri, Visakhapatnam and Kadapa.

“The ACA would host more number of IPL matches in Vizag following excellent feedback from BCCI and players during the last IPL season,” he said.

The ACA secretary said that Vizag would also host five ICC Women’s World Cup matches, an India vs South Africa ODI in December, and an India vs New Zealand T20I in January 2026.