Something is amiss

T he Pakistan Super League (PSL) continues its trend of saying farewell to the UAE earlier with every passing year. After hosting the entire first edition in the Middle Eastern desert, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) brought back the final to Pakistan; played in front of a giddy Lahore at the Gaddafi Stadium.

This time around, the PSL wraps up its UAE tour even earlier and returns to Pakistan with three matches still to play — two of them set to take place in Lahore and the all-important final to be staged in Karachi.

A total of 31 matches were played in the UAE, including the first playoff between Karachi and Islamabad.

There was the usual glitz and glamour, constant strokes of brilliance interjected by the occasional blip in quality and the kind of nail-biting finishes that have become a trademark of the PSL. However, not all is well with the PSL.

Low crowds have become an unfortunate feature of the PSL — a reality of playing in a country that has no inherent cricket fan base of its own — but this year crowds dwindled even more. The wearing off of the initial excitement and novelty factor of the PSL and the increased number of matches in Pakistan mean fewer and fewer fans are travelling to stadiums in Dubai and Sharjah. This, arguably, is the biggest challenge the PSL faces. Even by the most optimistic of estimates, it will take at least five more years before the entire PSL comes to Pakistan. In that while, the UAE is set to host most of the PSL matches. The empty stands not only reduce the PCB’s total revenue but also make for an incredibly poor match environment.

The PCB deserves credit for ensuring the PSL is played at a quality that is at par with the best leagues around the world. Yet there is that nagging sense that something is missing.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2018.

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