Lights, camera, action: Let the (PSL) games begin!

The tournament 20 million cricket fans had endlessly been waiting for began on a brilliant note.

After a long period of waiting, the first edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) finally kicked off in Dubai last night. Stars from Pakistan, Jamaica and America performed their hearts out for a pretty decent sized crowd.


As with any cricket league around the world, the ceremony had all the excitement, flair, fashion, glamour and music to provide massive entertainment for the eager audience.

Photo: Tribune

By the looks of the event, the opening ceremony did extremely well considering this was our first time hosting such an event. Wasim Akram said this has got to be one of the biggest and greatest things to have happened to Pakistani cricket. It surely did look like that, keeping in mind last night’s festivities at the Dubai Cricket Stadium.

The show started on a sober tone, with brief speeches from the UAE Minister for Culture, Youth and Social Development and His Highness Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, who honoured the ceremony with his opening remarks and discussed the deep bond shared between Pakistan and UAE.

This was followed by a speech by Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Chairman Shahryar Khan, who discussed the potential of the league and its future plans. PSL chairman Najam Sethi also graced everyone with a speech, he thanked the authorities in the Emirates for assisting PCB in the organisation of the first edition of the league.

After various speeches, the national anthem was sung with great fervour. Then came the exciting bit which entailed the music and hungama. It started off with performances by actress cum model Sanam Saeed and actor and presenter Mohib Mirza on their upcoming movie song.

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Sean Paul, the Jamaican superstar lit the night with an astonishing performance. He was joined on stage by the Caribbean trio Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy. The last performance of the night was from our very own rock star, Ali Zafar, who ended the event by performing on the official anthem of the PSL.

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Photo: ESPNcricinfo

In between those performances, teams were made to walk-in and parade the stadium on their official songs. The glittering PSL trophy was also unveiled during the ceremony.

Once the excitement died down, the momentum shifted towards its rightful direction, the field.

Islamabad United led by Misbahul Haq faced Sarfraz Ahmed’s Quetta Gladiators in what later proved to be a one-side contest, where Quetta Gladiators bagged an easy victory against Misbah’s team.

Islamabad United batted first, unfortunately, none of the batsmen managed to strike the ball, due to which Islamabad United were reduced to 63 for 6 in the 15^th over. Once again it was down to Misbah (41 off 28 balls) who along with Andre Russle’s 35 off 20 balls helped the team post a mediocre total of 128 in 20 overs.

Chasing just 129 to win, Englishman Luke Wright (86 off 53 balls- not out) showed Islamabad United how it was rightfully done on slow and low pitches. He hit some breath-taking shots and finished the match with four overs to spare.

A tournament 20 million cricket fans had endlessly been waiting for began on a brilliant note. Pakistanis have a reason to be proud since we have our very own league now.