Elitist approach by the PCB, PSL Franchises preventing the PSL from growing?

[Savak]

Was witnessing an interesting Podcast by two cricket journalists online and they raised their concerns as to why the PSL has badly stagnated off late and not really grown as expected in the last few years. When a small time league like the BPL can give the PSL a tough time and snap up players like Faf, Gayle, Narine, Naveen ul Haq, Moen Ali e.t.c, you can only imagine what will happen when the Emirate Cricket League launches their T-20 league.

They mentioned that the biggest reason why the PSL had stagnated was the arrogant, over confident and non-ambitious approach of the PCB and PSL franchise owners where they had failed to captivate the overall product and their respective franchises with the masses.

I will summarize the points they mentioned

- The problem with the way the PCB and the PSL Franchises are marketing and managing the PSL is that they are not getting out of the elitist, burger mindset due to which they are failing to truly target and captivate the local stakeholders

- The PCB and similarly the PSL also needs to get rid of their old dehati mindset that Cricket being the only premier game in Pakistan will easily sell by itself in the local market and therefore the PCB and the PSL authorities do not have to do any extraordinary promotion and marketing. Wrong, every PCB Officials and Stakeholders from the PCB Chairman, CEO, Marketing Department, PSL Officials, Franchise Owners and the players need to actually go out into the streets and aggressively market this product with the local population, local sponsors and local businesses like no tommorow i.e. even Paan, Ghutka shops, Shops in Areas like Saddar, Lea Market. It is the responsibility of the PCB and PSL officials to pass on their vision if people are not interested, you have to be aggressive and not be scared of approaching non-interested parties and even modify your tactics as well for e.g. if you are approaching a seth owner, owner of a banaspati company, you will not impress him with an all suited English presentation, you have to get down to his level to get him to buy into your vision.

- Pakistan is a small country, financially a halka mulk compared to India, the economy is down and that will automatically reflect on the league i.e. the PSL. But there are a lot of mega rich tycoons in Pakistan who have no qualms splurging money on luxuries like BMW's, Penthouses, Mansions, Private Jets, buying their own tv channels and these people are capable of pumping big money into the PSL and Pakistan Cricket but you have to approach these people without any fear of rejection. There are many businessmen in Faislabad, Sialkot who produce bottles, clothes but for some reason the PCB and the PSL does not cater to this segment of the population out of fear that their presence will dilute the image, reputation of the League. A lot of Businessmen have individually sponsored cricket tournaments in Pakistan, if they can sponsor cricket tournaments, why can they not be approached to contribute towards the PSL? If there is any league in South Asia that can show respectable financial muscle after the IPL in the South Asia region then it is only the PSL.

- Local Pakistani brands, products, companies are not being allowed to market their products in the PSL for e.g. Gaye Soap Ads, Matches, Banaspati ads, Shahi Mehwa Supari ads. You have to allow all small sponsors and investors in order to develop the connect with the product. If you don't connect the masses to the product, if you don't bring all your local sponsors on board, you will not be successful in Capacity Building.

- The Opening and Closing Ceremonies are given a branded feeling, no local raw artists are allowed to participate because of the feeling and fear that their participation will dilute the image and reputation of the league for e.g. how some people were concerned getting Naseebo Lal involved in the PSL anthem was going to hurt the reputation of the league. The masses will not connect with the likes of Ali Zafar, Fawad Khan, Junoon but will potentially connect with other local singers who have a broader appeal on the streets, these are the artists who need to get involved in the PSL.

- Poor English Speaking Commentators and well renowned Urdu commentators are barred from the PSL in favour of foreign commentators and broadcasters and this is resulting in a disconnect b/w the product and the masses. India allows broad casting in English, Hindi, Telugu and other regional languages to allow the best chance for mass connection with their product and capitivate the bigger market as possible. In comparison Pakistan is relying on Erin Holland to come from Australia to host the PSL. If the PCB is smart, they should work towards an individual broadcast in English, Urdu, Sindhi, Punjabi, Balochi, Pastho and other languages in Pakistan and sign deals with individual channels to broadcast these beams seperately on different tv channels and youtube streams. There are plenty of regional channels in Pakistan and PTV definately has regional channels

 

[DeadlyVenom]

The points seem all over the place, one minute the mindset is described as burger and the next it is dehati.

There seems to be a fascination in Pakistan about accounting with things at 'street level'. The main reason that things are at this level is because most people can't afford them or because they are unpopular.

What benefit will the PSL get by attracting no name local sponsors and begging local businessmen for money? Nothing at all.

The league needs to fundamentally change and make a niche image for itself and that can be done without getting the begging bowl out to random businessmen.

First things first it needs to abandon any notion of being a second IPL and focus more on becoming like the Big Bash League.

At the moment there is nothing remotely interesting in the PSL that would intrigue a neutral.

The IPL has the big players, the money and the window.

The BBL is strategically timed to coincide with the Aussie summer and gives a platform to domestic players and relatively unknown international players.

The 100 is unique and has a novelty factor

The PSL does nothing that is different or memorable that will captivate an international market. For the domestic market there is also a Kashmir premier league and National T20 that features the same players. 3 tournaments in the space of a year that had pretty much the same core of players going back and forth.

One thing that the PCB could no instantly that would increase a bit of viewers intrigue in the PSL is to stop players playing any other domestic competition in Pakistan and rotate the international side more. Babar Azam etc are premium products yet he is in action in T20 cricket numerous times. By the time the PSL comes nobody cares.

The league needs to be rethought- its purpose, vision and strategy need to be understood and clear. It needs to have a window and a purpose.

If the goal is just to be an IPL clone then it wont work, no matter how many posters you put on a samosa cart in Pir Mahal.