Star players’ snub of PSL raises concerns for PCB

Lahore: The seventh edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is reaching the end of the first stage where three teams have already qualified for the playoffs and one out of Islamabad United or Quetta Gladiators will complete the last-four lineup.

The competition is becoming the first in the post-Covid-19 era that is being completed without any interruption, much to the credit of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) who managed to establish a much tighter bio-secure bubble compared to the one which was established in 2021 which led to the disruption of the event after 14 matches.

Despite some impactful action on the field, there are some concerns in the cricketing community regarding the lack of foreign star players’ participation in the event.

Lack of hype

The PCB is undergoing a major transformation phase ever since new chairman Ramiz Raja replaced Ehsan Mani as the head of the country’s cricket governing body.

As soon as he arrived, some high-profile appointees of the previous management including the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wasim Khan departed, leaving a big void to fill in the space of a short time.

Over the years, the PCB has taken pride in making the PSL a big brand and they should. This was not even a practical idea a decade back but now it is a tournament that is watched all over the world.

However, the new management under the leadership of Ramiz failed to create the kind of hype there used to be in the years before.

The release of the song, which started the buildup for the mega-event over the years, was released merely two days before the commencement of the competition, showing the lack of preparedness on behalf of the management.

In the initial phase of the competition, despite being allowed to host just 25 per cent of the crowd in Karachi, management’s failure to ensure fans engagement in the first few matches was one of the primary reasons why the venue was not filled to the capacity. However, it improved with time and in the matches to come, the venue hosted all matches with the allowed capacity.

As soon as the competition moved to Lahore, despite challenging weather conditions, there was evidence of more marketing. Those efforts translated into high attendance in most of the matches.

Failure in player’s acquisition

The players’ acquisition remains one of the most pivotal aspects of having a successful T20 league, especially in the presence of other competitions, which at times are taking place simultaneously.

This year, PCB faced big challenges in acquiring the players as the schedule for the competition was changed to allow the much-awaited Australia’s tour of Pakistan.

That change meant that PSL was set to start just after the conclusion of the Big Bash League (BBL) and at the same time when there is another T20 competition — Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is taking place.

Just before the draft for the seventh edition, PCB suffered another blow with Imran Ahad Khan, who was looking after the players’ acquisition for the PSL ever since its inception, resigned with the change of top-tier management. His departure clearly impacted the process of signing players for the seventh edition.

The biggest setback for the competition was the failure to acquire the services of the likes of star England all-rounder Moeen Ali and former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, who instead opted to play the BPL.

While it is players’ wish to take part in any competition, both Ali and Du Plessis have played in the PSL before and was full of praise with the arrangements. But something was not right which made them opt to play in a league with a far lesser worldwide audience.

Despite those setbacks and having the very limited human resource available, the PCB’s current management managed to get some big names to participate in the event.

However, in the middle of the competition, as many as three renowned foreign players opted to leave, citing bubble fatigue.

Even though all those three publicly endorsed the quality of the PSL, the managements’ failure to convince the players to extend their stay was yet another evidence of how things are not as great as they should or could’ve been.

Possible solution: 

One of the possible solutions being discussed in the corridors of the PCB is to move towards players auction instead of having a drafting process.

That model is followed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) where franchises go for a bidding war to sign a player.

The PCB has always been reluctant in having players auction as some leagues in the past collapsed once franchises failed to pay the sum that was promised to the players.

However, for the players, auction remains a far more favourable option compared to the drafts.

The reason is that in a draft, a player can only get a certain amount of money as they are placed in certain categories and there is always an upper limit.

However, in an auction, any player can end up getting an insane amount of money, something which was visible in the IPL auction for the 2022 edition where Tim David, who is playing for Multan Sultans in the PSL 2022, was bought by Mumbai Indians for a whopping sum of nearly PKR 200 million, nearly seven times more than a player can earn in the PSL.

Those numbers are too big to ignore, something which is acknowledged by the top-tier management of the PCB and therefore, it should not come as a surprise as for the PSL in 2023, we will not have the drafts to select teams.

That process ends up increasing the value of the player and therefore, most players want to be involved in the auction to have a greater chance of securing a bigger payout.

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