Faisalsq092
Tape Ball Regular
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2015
- Runs
- 582
- Post of the Week
- 1
PSL 3 is about to begin and as everyone I am super excited for it. It’s a tournament which most Pakistan cricket lovers follow and enjoy and I see tremendous potential in it.
Its been a successful tournament so far and I dearly hope, being realistic, that it soon becomes the indisputable 2nd best cricket league going around (Can’t compete the IPL in the near future). Pakistan has the advantage of a massive market and knowing how passionate our population is, it just needs proper marketing to make this brand attractive.
With all the hype around, an area which I feel needs attention is the scheduling of the tournament.
PSL is now bookmarked for the month of Feb/ March. Although, it is a convenient period to play cricket in UAE, it also deprives PSL of a lot of things which can help boost the product.
I have been contemplating over it and I feel September is a much better month for PSL to be played. The merits of playing in September I find is as follows:
Star Player Availability:
Knowing that a T20 league can only succeed if it gathers attention Internationally. PSL isn’t maximizing its potential in this regard. There is no doubt that we produce enough local talent to make it exciting, but to engage the global audience, they need to associate themselves to the team to gather a following. International audience will associate itself once it finds their favorite countrymen being part of the PSL.
The top 5 countries in the world currently are (unarguably): Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand and England. It is given that Indian players will not be a part. This leaves us with four teams to attract star players of.
Looking at the current season, all the remaining four teams are busy in international assignments. This has actually been the case since the previous seasons as it is the home season of Australia, NZ and South Africa. England too are generally busy playing away cricket during winters. The PSL has so far not attracted QDK, ABDV, Guptill, Boult, Warner, Root, Maxwell and plenty other numerous stars representing these teams. These are supposedly the best players going around in the world. PSL suddenly misses out on a lots of quality players which can only improve the quality of the tournament. The likes of ageing KP or retired MCcullum or a non international Tymal Mills will never able to match those standards.
We are even missing star Quality from the 6th best team (In T20s) which is West Indies due to many of their main players due to play in the WC qualifiers. This leaves us only with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as credible teams from whom to extract star power and in the current state, we can only extract so much from them. It drains the pool further if either of these teams have an international commitment.
Now if the league was held in September, this would have been the schedule of the teams considering it was in 2017 (the last such schedule to provide factual assessment):
1. Australia – Busy Playing India and Bangladesh
2. South Africa – No Games until 28th September
3. New Zealand – Fully available
4. England – Available after 16th September
5. West Indies – Available after 16th September
6. Bangladesh - No Games until 28th September
7. Sri Lanka – Available after 6th September.
This suddenly opens up the overseas slots for plenty of South African and Kiwi players which can turn out to be a massive boost. Just Imagine Guptill opening for KK or QDK, Munro and other stars playing for various franchises.
No clash with any other Major League:
As the news is building around of various other T20 leagues being schedule in the Emirates which may take the sheen off PSL. Why not arrange our league right at the start of the season so that any other competing league before PSL doesn’t affect the market of the PSL. In other International Leagues BPL occurs in November and BBL too doesn’t happen until December/ January.
The biggest plus of this arrangement would be that we will be a good 6-7 months away from IPL. As we have witnessed in the past, the players have distanced themselves from PSL to stay fitter and fresher during the IPL. Realistically, we cannot compete IPL right now and it would be better to arrange ourselves accordingly to not let players slip away.
Talent in the limelight before the season begins:
Pakistan’s home season generally start during October onwards. PSL could serve as a platform which can bring the talent to the limelight (I in no way mean produce talent) just before the home season kicks odd. We can then test the players on current form in our home games to ease them into the side. Although this is marginal and can go either way, but I think this can improve planning for future with our youngsters.
I don’t know if there are any genuine reasons to not hold it during this time.
The dilemma shifting to this period will be that either another PSL is to be held again in September 2018 or they opt for a hiatus and hold PSL 4 in 2018. Both options have its Pros and Cons but I believe this is a situation which is easily manageable and a middle ground can be found.
Its been a successful tournament so far and I dearly hope, being realistic, that it soon becomes the indisputable 2nd best cricket league going around (Can’t compete the IPL in the near future). Pakistan has the advantage of a massive market and knowing how passionate our population is, it just needs proper marketing to make this brand attractive.
With all the hype around, an area which I feel needs attention is the scheduling of the tournament.
PSL is now bookmarked for the month of Feb/ March. Although, it is a convenient period to play cricket in UAE, it also deprives PSL of a lot of things which can help boost the product.
I have been contemplating over it and I feel September is a much better month for PSL to be played. The merits of playing in September I find is as follows:
Star Player Availability:
Knowing that a T20 league can only succeed if it gathers attention Internationally. PSL isn’t maximizing its potential in this regard. There is no doubt that we produce enough local talent to make it exciting, but to engage the global audience, they need to associate themselves to the team to gather a following. International audience will associate itself once it finds their favorite countrymen being part of the PSL.
The top 5 countries in the world currently are (unarguably): Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand and England. It is given that Indian players will not be a part. This leaves us with four teams to attract star players of.
Looking at the current season, all the remaining four teams are busy in international assignments. This has actually been the case since the previous seasons as it is the home season of Australia, NZ and South Africa. England too are generally busy playing away cricket during winters. The PSL has so far not attracted QDK, ABDV, Guptill, Boult, Warner, Root, Maxwell and plenty other numerous stars representing these teams. These are supposedly the best players going around in the world. PSL suddenly misses out on a lots of quality players which can only improve the quality of the tournament. The likes of ageing KP or retired MCcullum or a non international Tymal Mills will never able to match those standards.
We are even missing star Quality from the 6th best team (In T20s) which is West Indies due to many of their main players due to play in the WC qualifiers. This leaves us only with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as credible teams from whom to extract star power and in the current state, we can only extract so much from them. It drains the pool further if either of these teams have an international commitment.
Now if the league was held in September, this would have been the schedule of the teams considering it was in 2017 (the last such schedule to provide factual assessment):
1. Australia – Busy Playing India and Bangladesh
2. South Africa – No Games until 28th September
3. New Zealand – Fully available
4. England – Available after 16th September
5. West Indies – Available after 16th September
6. Bangladesh - No Games until 28th September
7. Sri Lanka – Available after 6th September.
This suddenly opens up the overseas slots for plenty of South African and Kiwi players which can turn out to be a massive boost. Just Imagine Guptill opening for KK or QDK, Munro and other stars playing for various franchises.
No clash with any other Major League:
As the news is building around of various other T20 leagues being schedule in the Emirates which may take the sheen off PSL. Why not arrange our league right at the start of the season so that any other competing league before PSL doesn’t affect the market of the PSL. In other International Leagues BPL occurs in November and BBL too doesn’t happen until December/ January.
The biggest plus of this arrangement would be that we will be a good 6-7 months away from IPL. As we have witnessed in the past, the players have distanced themselves from PSL to stay fitter and fresher during the IPL. Realistically, we cannot compete IPL right now and it would be better to arrange ourselves accordingly to not let players slip away.
Talent in the limelight before the season begins:
Pakistan’s home season generally start during October onwards. PSL could serve as a platform which can bring the talent to the limelight (I in no way mean produce talent) just before the home season kicks odd. We can then test the players on current form in our home games to ease them into the side. Although this is marginal and can go either way, but I think this can improve planning for future with our youngsters.
I don’t know if there are any genuine reasons to not hold it during this time.
The dilemma shifting to this period will be that either another PSL is to be held again in September 2018 or they opt for a hiatus and hold PSL 4 in 2018. Both options have its Pros and Cons but I believe this is a situation which is easily manageable and a middle ground can be found.
