Written by Bashaarat MasoodSrinagar | November 3, 2025 08:00 AM IST 2 min readA private cricket league that brought international players to Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium has ended in chaos, with organisers allegedly leaving the city, leaving players, match officials and hotel bills unpaid.The Indian Heaven’s Premier League (IHPL), which had eight teams and international stars like Chris Gayle, Thisara Perera, Jesse Ryder and Deven Smith, started in Srinagar on October 25 and was scheduled to end on November 8.On Saturday morning, however, the players were informed that the day’s match had been cancelled for “technical reasons”. Players and match officials were taken by surprise on Sunday morning when the staff of the hotel they were staying at informed them that the organisers had allegedly left the city without paying for their rooms.“The hotel management informed us in the morning,” Mellisa Juniper, an official of the English Cricket Board, who was an umpire for the tournament, told reporters in Srinagar. “No payment has been made to any of us.”The league was organised by a group called Yuva Society Mohali. On its website, it described the IHPL as “India’s new cricketing movement uniting sports, youth and tourism in the heart of Jammu and Kashmir”.“It is more than a league, it is an experience that blends entertainment, opportunity and culture,” the website says.Another official, who was also an umpire in the league, said he was asked to bring international players and umpires for the tournament. “I got three players from the West Indies — Deven Smith, Craig Williams and Garey Mathurin,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. “This is not good for the cricket league, for Srinagar, and for the country.”Story continues below this adA participant in the league said many international players had already left the Kashmir Valley after getting hints that something was awry.The Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council distanced itself from the cricket league, with an official saying that they only provided the ground and had no other involvement.The organisers of the league could not be reached for a comment, with phone numbers linked to them switched off.Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Cricket