PSL postponement hits players, potential investors

Pakistan’s upcoming T20 league delayed yet again due to time constraints.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Super League’s (PSL) postponement has come as a major blow for the players, fans and investors who had renewed hopes of becoming part of the mega project.

Initial fears regarding staging of Pakistan’s own T20 lucrative cricket league turned into reality on Tuesday.

“It’s a great setback that the PSL will not be staged this year because all the top Pakistani players had high hopes from the project,” a current member of the national team told The Express Tribune.



“Our players have been playing all over the world like Australia, South Africa, West Indies and even in the US and Middle-East, but they all want an Indian Premier League-style event in Pakistan.”

The idea of PSL was initiated by former PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf but was put on hold. Later, it was taken forward by Najam Sethi but he too failed in his attempt.

Meanwhile, another player feels that the PSL is long overdue, and more delays can create doubts among international players.

“The main idea so far regarding the PSL was to stage it in Dubai and nobody would’ve had problems playing there,” he said. “It has been postponed twice or thrice already, which is not good for the country’s credibility. The PCB must go ahead with the project.”

Bid documents handed back

Haier and Aman Foundation had come forward to bid for the overall rights of the PSL for 15 years.

However, current PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan told them that it had become extremely difficult to organise the inaugural PSL edition in January – as was originally planned – due to lack of time to schedule the tournament ahead of the 2015 World Cup.

Shaharyar handed back the financial proposals, bid security and bid participation fee to the bidders unopened.

Haeir CEO Javed Afridi stated that his company will participate in the process again whenever the bidding takes place in the future.

“We took the challenge of developing the PSL as an icon of Pakistan globally and that’s why we entered the bidding process,” said Afridi. “We will stand with the PCB bid again to contribute for the betterment of our country.”

Nadeem Omar, chairman of renowned local cricket team Omar Associates, said that he was interested in buying a franchise.

“We wanted to buy a franchise in the PSL because I felt that it is worth being part of the project whenever it is launched,” said Nadeem.

Meanwhile, PCB officials who were closely involved in the project believe that the idea will take off again soon after the World Cup.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2014.

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