Funny how empathy is being used as logic to include Balochistan players into the team rather than merit. Even KK have only 3 or so players in their squad of 21 who are Karachi born which should be a bigger travesty given the talent pool Karachi produces. And those 3 aren't even going to play the PSL. Don't see any furore there.
Can you for once not think about your own self-interest and be willing to care for the sentiments of those who are less well off and are heavily underrepresented?
While growing up as a kid in a city in Punjab, which wasn't Lahore, as a 100% punjabi and belonging to the majority ethnic group of Pakistan, I was always curious about the other ethnicities and people with different cultural background than me, residing beside me in my beautiful country. In particular, I do remember being fond of the nation's biggest city so far in the south right next to the sea. As far as I can remember nobody in my surrounding taught me to differentiate between people from different background or taught me the virtues of regional bias. Hence this sort of thinking is totally alien to me and it is possible that I am amongst the minority in this regard.
I am sharing my personal information to let you know how insulting and inconsiderate your post come across to me. I am completely alien to this Karachi vs Lahore fight but since I have been on this forum, I have learnt that such a thing exists. It might be banter, light joking, whatever and it can have its place and time. However this posts of yours on this topic, where you are uselessly playing the victim card, makes me think that perhaps there is indeed some sort of a complex involved behind such a thinking. Before you just sarcastically play down the issue and ridicule it to the extreme, I want you to be a bit considerate and look at the bigger picture. I want you to consider whether you want Pakistan Super League to be something that unites the nation rather than divides it.
Look closely and you will see that originally the discussion was started in a much broader sense. In another thread the issue was raised about including a local player from the same region as the team's name. Yes, Quetta Gladiators is indeed the team discussed most commonly but that's only because it represents the most extreme case. However the motivation behind the discussion was not to solely promote players from Balochistan. At least I did not take part in the discussion with this as my motivation.
My personal suggestion was to make it mandatory for each team, to have at least one local player, who is young and upcoming, in the SQUAD and not necessarily in the playing XI. This also implies more Karachi player in Karachi Kings team. Here I want to make it clear that this is only my suggestion. Another or better idea can be implemented instead, I don't mind, as long as it guarantees that the team would have some kind of association with the region it is named after, so that the people of the region would be motivated to invest and root for their team.
This is not Europe or the US. You can't look at leagues all around the world and wish to copy paste the same formula while hoping for big success. That would be foolish. This is Pakistan, our country which has its own unique market and if you truly want the league to be successful in the long term and you truly want it to be a league which is followed in different regions and by the whole nation then you can not overlook this important aspect. It's already obvious that the teams were initially named after different regions to get the fan following going. But you cannot foolishly name the teams after different regions without considering the sentiments of the people and expect it to successful. This is short term thinking. You cannot expect to create a fan following of the different cities by the local population out of thin air. Previously I pointed out that without considering the sentiments of the local population you are only going to alienate them from their team and here you have it the cricket associations of Balochistan is already starting to express their discontent.
If you as a franchise ignore the sentiments of the local population, especially in regards to QG, you will lose a vast majority of your potential source of income. You will end up with only a handful of fans spread across the country who are only supporting you because their favorite player is in your team, the moment their favorite players goes their loyalty goes.
I am focused on the long term success and firmly believe that if we are able to keep this league alive for next few years and are able to keep the local population of various regions engaged then down the road people would eventually stop caring whether a player from Balochistan is playing in QG or not, because people would have already been emotionally invested in the team over the years. The problem is right now there is almost zero emotional investment by the local population in your brand, since the initial interest of having a team named after their region is fading away, due to a lack of any meaningful connection with the team.
I also want to address the general sentiment that if their was local talent then QG would have selected it. In the 2016 edition a kid from Balochistan, Bismillah Khan was part of the QG squad. In the last game of the group stage QG decided to give him a chance. While chasing a target of 200+ runs he opened the innings and scored 55 runs off 30 balls 10 4s and one six at a SR of 183+. QG successfully chased down the target. Bismilliah Khan was his team's highest run scorer and was awarded the MOM. In his next two games he scored 0. So you could say two consecutive failures. In the 2017 edition he was selected as a supplementary player and never got to play a single game. Basically you could say he was downgraded and now here we are in the 2018 edition he has been dropped as a player though I did read about some lame excuses of him still being the team's ambassador and all that. The kid is a cricketer and wants to play, you cant just have him as your mascot and think you fooled the people.
There you have it, a typical example of how someone form a weak background who has no source of support, is treated. The guy did absolutely nothing wrong to be dropped or to not be given a proper chance again. It's a t20 game, two consecutive ducks aren't something unheard off. It's not just about him specifically, it is about what kind of a message we are giving to the rest of the upcoming local kids who are watching all this closely, when we allow and tolerate such kind of treatment. What do we expect when there is no proper regulation to prevent such things from happening and give support to those with lesser means. If there is no proper incentive and no real structure through which someone with determination and willpower can become successful than no wonder you don't see new faces. What's the use of pushing myself and working hard when it wont be recognized? When despite a match winning performance and a promising start a local kid is not selected in a 21 man squad then of course there will be resentment and anger.
The name Bismillah Khan might me new to our ears and we might have to look at old scoreboards to realize the kid scored 50+ runs in his first match but you can be sure that over there in Quetta he is every kids hero and they remember his knock as if he had played it yesterday. Now imagine those kids feelings upon finding out he is dropped from the squad, would they really be motivated to pursue a career in cricket themselves?
Shame on Sarfraz
