Following the success of the Village World Cup Series there was a great deal of interest from teams to have a high-level competition that follows a similar format. To satisfy this demand, Cricket PNG is launching the Village Premier League (VPL 2021) that will be played at Amini Park on the weekend of November 20 and 21. The VPL 2021 will be run as a high-level franchise/club competition, using the Indian Premier League (IPL) as the model for teams to adopt. First prize will be PGK 10,000, the richest prize ever offered for a domestic event run by Cricket PNG. The total prize pool will be PGK 15,000, with Second Prize PGK 3,000, Third and Fourth Prize PGK 1,000 Each. Each team will use one of the names of the IPL teams: Capitals, Royal Challengers, Indians, Royals, Super Kings, Knight Riders, Kings, Sunrisers. The first team to be confirmed for this premier tournament are the Porebada Royal Challengers. Igo Dairi, cricket advocate and an administrator in Porebada Village, cited “growing cricket in Porebada and giving the opportunity to young talents to have exposure at the highest level possible and aspire to pursue a career” as the reasons for entering their team into the VPL 2021. Teams may field Kumul Petroleum PNG Barramundi and/or Cricket PNG Under 19 players so long as they are listed in their official squad. We expect to see a high quality of players across the limited number of teams that will be fighting it out to win the big prize on offer. It is going to be thrilling to see our World Cup heroes compete in this format with and against each other. The tournament will be held strictly in accordance with the Lockdown Measures, including that at no time will there be 20 or more people on the field, all participants must have been vaccinated, and no spectators will be present. All games will be live scored and streamed online. Interest for this exciting new premier tournament has been high and we will be announcing the VPL 2021 teams and more details about the format and draw shortly.