All You Need to Know - Disability Premier League 2025

The fourth edition of the Toyota Disability Premier League (DPL) gets underway on Sunday, August 24, here’s a full comprehensive guide to the competition.

With a final live on Sky Sports as part of a double-header with an England Men’s T20 (September 10, Sophia Gardens), the DPL is an action packed three consecutive weekends of four teams playing six matches each in attempt for their place at the international ground in Cardiff.

The four teams: Pirates, Hawks, Black Cats and Tridents are made up of squads of 14 to combine for the best 56 players across the disability game in the UK. Squads consist of players with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and hearing impairments.

Since its pilot inception in 2021 (not officially a DPL competition) the competition has grown to new standards, new grounds and higher reputation. This summer landmarked history in disability cricket where England hosted India in the first ever Mixed Disability international series, breaking the barriers of playing solely within impairments at international level; a mould set by the Disability Premier League which has this year formed a partnership with Toyota.

Pirates are the defending champions, led to the final in every edition by England Physical Disability international Anthony Clapham. Despite three finals, this was Clapham’s first chance to lift the trophy after Hawks and Tridents ruled over the Pirates in the two years previous.

“The first year [in the final] we let ourselves down and second year Jake Oakes did really well to get 32 off the final over to get us to a par score but Callum Flynn, England Physical Disability and Mixed Disability captain put on a show as he loves to do.” Clapham began.

“I was so nervous driving down just thinking ‘we’re not going to play three finals and lose three finals are we?’

“It was such a relief to get over the line. We were so strong last year, we won every game and had Brendan Parr who had an excellent year. Paul Allen as coach was superb, let’s me do my thing as captain and let’s all players perform.”

Clapham himself led from the front in the 2024 final with 55 from 49 balls in setting 143 for 6 after his reliable, destructive opener Parr faltered in the final after top scoring in the competition.

“I’ve still got the recording and I’ve watched it back once or twice let’s say.” Clapham laughed.

“The hardest thing when you’re nervous playing on TV is putting runs on the board as we’d had in previous years. Losing Brendan [Parr] in the first over after how dominant he was just something I knew was going to happen!

“Me and Dan Bowser [England LD international] put on a great partnership, I was very proud. I didn’t hit as many boundaries as I normally would because you don’t quite realise how different these professional grounds are to club grounds by size.”

Each year, as in similar mould to franchise competitions the Toyota Disability Premier League has a draft system to select squads with each team able to retain six players from the previous year.

“We knew who we were going to lose so me and Paul Allen sat down weeks before the draft to look at our options and we’re happy with where we’re at.”

Despite being the second top run scorer in the 2024 edition (behind teammate and touring roommate, Parr), Clapham was left out for the inaugural Mixed Disability squad earlier this summer.

“It was gutting. I didn’t quite get given clear reasons.” The Pirates star reflects.

“The PD [Physical Disability] players I think was picked from the winter tour to Sri Lanka and obviously he could only have five players. They needed a keeper so they had to move things around and picked Will Flynn and Angus Brown who both did superbly but personally gutted.

“I was top wicket-taker on the two most recent tours and obviously with the DPL showed the runs consistently over the years and feel I’ve not really had the chance at the top of the order for England but at the end of the day they won the series 6-1 so I can’t say it was the wrong decision.”

The 2025 Toyota Disability Premier League sees unique rules in place differing from previous years. An ‘explosion over’ used to give the DPL a unique selling point in place of a standard six-over powerplay along with quotas for overs to be bowled from each impairment group which have now been made stricter to match the rules of the Mixed Disability series against India.

The new rules sees a standard T20 powerplay but now requires a PD, LD and Deaf player to bat in the top four and each impairment category must bowl five overs each (while maximum bowler allocation remains as four overs.)

“The competition is becoming more centralised in the ECB’s core business so it’s not stuck out as it was previously.” Ian Martin MBE, ECB’s Head of Disability cricket said.

“Having the games live streamed is a big thing for us, and the final as a double header live on sky with England Men is massive for our platform. The Toyota partnership will give us a higher profile so I think it’s moving in the right direction.

“The DPL is aspirational and something to be proud of which then gives you the platform to perform for a place in the England squad which moving to Mixed Disability has become harder and in turn should make competition better down the pathway [into domestic disability cricket.]” Martin continued.

“I expect to see in this DPL those who missed out in the Mixed Disability squad to really push their cases. George Greenway [England Deaf captain] is a tremendous quick bowler and Clappers [Anthony Clapham] a really decent bat so those two were probably the most unlucky but selection was really interesting and that’s what the DPL is there for.”

For the 2025 competition, a number of players (including the aforementioned Greenway, away with Devon National County and Exmouth CC with an upcoming T20 Club national quarter-final) will miss this year’s competition, or parts of the three consecutive Sundays, for various reasons, arguably weakening the tournament.

“You can’t run a tournament based on availability; not given the way we platform we want to give the DPL.” Martin stated.

“With the current format we need ground availability with two ovals, four games a day. We’ve gone down the model using the end of season T20 internationals to host the final so that dictates the schedule and you hope players make themselves available.

“There’s going to be a working group at the end of this year to look at the DPL and how we can take it to the next level. There’s complications and implications with paying players and going professional which we’ve looked at really hard but we have options with the scheduling, the format, the final, do we go regional [with the teams rather than the current four teams?]” He questioned.

“It’s a balancing act, we need to sit down and have a look but it may be that the current format is the best it can be but with anything it’s good to look at your potential improvements.”

Team Overviews

Black Cats

The only team yet to win the Toyota Disability Premier League will be hoping to do so in 2025 under the leadership of Dan Reynaldo. Under new assistant coach Mark O’Leary – formerly of Western Storm and currently Glamorgan 2^nd XI Head Coach – the Black Cats have a reinforced bowling attack consisting of veteran Farooq Mohammed, Lancastrian England Mixed Disability 5-for taking Jimmy Dixon and one of top all-rounders Gregor McKenzie to name a few. However, the absence of Angus Brown from the competition leaves their batting with something to be desired.

Hawks

Always looking the strongest on paper the Hawks don’t always live up to the hype in the tournament. A title of dominance in 2023 was followed by a bottom-placed finish in 2024. They are to be captained by Callum Flynn which makes a huge difference to their side, although it is suspected that he’ll be unavailable for the opening weekend. England LD star Ronnie Jackson and England Deaf international of 33 years, Umesh Valjee join the fold while teenage left-arm wrist-spinner Jake Vosloo drafted for his first tournament makes for an exciting prospect.

Tridents

Last year’s runners-up will be captained for a second consecutive year by Liam O’Brien on the back of the summer of his life, claiming player of the series in the recent Mixed Disability India tour. LD youngster Alfie Pyle and Deaf player Adnan Ghani, who starred in the final against the Tridents in 2024 join. A balanced bowling attack leaves for a good chance but the loss of Umesh Valjee and Will Flynn from the batting lineup can’t be understated.

Pirates

And finally, the defending champions led by Anthony Clapham for a fourth year. Pirates have undoubtably the most destructive top order stacked with internationals, unaffected from last year. However, new regulations may cause a shuffle to be required and a lack of depth in the deaf department could leave a lot of pressure on Henry Wainman who rejoins the Pirates for this campaign.

You can catch two selected games from each group stage matchday on England and Cricket Board YouTube channel or attend for free at ECB Performance Centre, Loughborough (24^th August), Worcester Norton Cricket Club (31^st August), Colwall Cricket Club, Malvern (7^th September). The final will proceed England Men vs South Africa at Sophia Garden on September 10^th.

Published in The Cricketer.