It is time to move on from "has-beens" in PSL

[The_Odd_One]

No offence to the likes of Gayle, Sanga, KP, Watson, etc. But they are all past their prime and will perform in just a couple of matches. Team owners need to bring in more cricketers from this era. Riley Russow has been a great addition to PSL which badly needs more cricketers like Maxwell, Buttler, De Kock, etc.

Moreover, there are too many overage local players playing in PSL. If PCB is serious about making PSL successful in the future, it is time to move players like Misbah, Hafeez, etc. from playing role to coaching/management role and say good-bye to others like Zulfiqar, Rafatullah, etc..

PSL reminds me of the WWE. They keep relying on oldies like Goldberg, The Rock, Sting, Triple H, John Cena, etc and failed to build a brand around younger talents. As a result, they lost millions of viewers over the years because fans are tired of watching the same performers again and again. PSL might suffer the same fate if they do not build their own names.

 

[The_KING]

Your wwe analogy is wrong. The fans want to see the oldies because they are more interesting than the boring younger stars.

 

[Rayyman]

A lot of the current players are playing internationally atm. That's why we resort to has-beens.

 

[Zohaib Shah]

These days its all about the money. It has very less to do with developing talent.

 

[Brilliance]

We need to increase the number of teams. 8 will be good. Atleast one team should be added next year. Hafeez , Kamran, Zulfiqar, Rafat , Misbah should not be included. Maybe they can remain with the teams as mentors.

Also they have have missed on some of the good over seas players and selected some retards . They need to do better homework for the drafts.

 

[MMHS]

PSL already is the oldest T20 leagues around - next year it'll grow older. The foreigners will always be a bit over age, due to several factors - established star, availability, affordability.... But, apart from few emerging players under statuary requirements, I don't see any franchise dropping any of their local oldie bunch. Rather, they'll drop the emerging & young players & replace them with another bunch of young players. For example, this year Gohar & Asghar has not get much playing time - from this year, may be Shadab & Mir will survive but Amad, Hasan, Noor Wali, Talat, Mudassar .... will be replaced by next bunch.

I can categorically put names here - Afridi, Misbah, MoHa, Malik, Gul, Kakmal, Irfan, Sami, Ajmal, Imran Khalid, Sohail Khan, Wahab, Zulfi Babar, Iftekhar, Asad, Azhar, Tanvir .... won't be dropped next year, though each one is either obsolete in T20 or over aged and they'll be one year older.

Inclusion of Rafatullah is a clear indication that there is absolutely no scouting - players are hired on contacts & reputation. We can bash Misbah all we like, but he is just part of the system - every franchise has done the same & none more than the jolly boy Afridi's (both Afridi) team. PAK domestics is easily the oldest in world, even considering 2/3 even 5/6 years of faked age - Misbah is just carried the norms in national team. In fact, Misbah has played Amad, Raees & Shadab in his XI. We can blog around for thousand pages regarding PAK playing squire pegs in round holes, but PAK's future Captain is playing Asad & Anwar as openers with bat & ball.

I don't think adding 1, 2 or 3 more franchise can solve this issue - it'll just make few more oldies richer. Problem is, decision makers in PAK/PSL cricket has absolutely no clue of domestic players & they back on reference or personal contacts while scouting. And, I am not sure how passionate these people are to study players before hiring - for example, QG picked our Mahmudullah as replacement; I believe if it happens to be IPL, it would have been Sabbir - that's the difference with PSL people and say Joy Bhattachyria of KKR. Besides, PSL is not administrated to promote youth - we already have seen PAK international been picked as emerging player.

The quality of cricket is excellent considering the wickets of UAE, and the matches are often nail biters, but I don't see the speed & exuberance in PSL - it's just like watching PAK national team. It doesn't give me the excitement of watching MoHa, Misbah like say Shadab or Mir or Raees or Hasan.

 

[Abdullah]

to be honest im fine with it, 1 golden oldie per team is fine.
i dont think i would pick anybidy in place of sanga to spend 7 weeks with babar azam
i dont think i would pick anybody other than a gayle or kp for our young bowlers to bowl at whilst they r in blast mode.
so if these guys are being professional, taking it seriously, showing their work ethic, im cool with it.
on a side note, isnt it interesting kp will only be playing one of psl and ipl and he has chosen psl?

 

[Abdullah]

i ageee there r too many local overage players being favoured rather than youngsters though

 

[Cricket World]

I am interested in more youngsters to be given chances from Pakistan

 

[rixxuu]

It's not a Faisal bank T20 cup where PCB decides the squads. It's PSL, a franchise based league where the respective teams pick players as per there brand and requirements. For example, no one has asked IU to pick a grand pa 11 but some how they did and PCB can't do much about it.

 

[moghul]

Problem starts from the top, Pakistan has history's oldest cricket board chairman for whom history;s oldest captain is still a "young boy" who wants to carry on till the official retirement age in Pakistan.

This SYK-Misbah culture is the roots of all problems with Pakistan cricket.

 

[sjahmed23]

I think people are getting the concept of psl confused and psl as a tournament is still finding its way. There are simply too many expectations from a tournament that is not even being played in Pakistan. What exactly is pcb trying to achieve with the psl? I hear too many things, "grooming for youngsters", "cricket back in pakistan", "extra revenue stream for pcb", "extra money and opportunities for players"... not everything will work all at once. Unfortunately some officials in PCB have made PSL their own personal brand - they have too much power and they are running it like how government in pakistan runs the country. PSL should not be part of pcb, it should be left to the private corporations who own the franchises and they should be in charge of the decisions.

 

[Muhammad Saad]

Its looks like that PSL owners are more interested in winning the title rather than showcasing unique talents (in the form of Ghulam Mudassir , Yasir Jan ,Muhammad Adeel ,Ammad Alam) and attracting crowd.

 

[Bilal7]

Its looks like that PSL owners are more interested in winning the title rather than showcasing unique talents (in the form of Ghulam Mudassir , Yasir Jan ,Muhammad Adeel ,Ammad Alam) and attracting crowd.

Excuse me? Isn't winning the title the whole point of the competition?

 

[shariqnoor]

People here don't understand the fact that the franchise owners have invested their money on these teams. ARY bought Karachi for $2.6 million per year. Salman Iqbal does not care whether it's a 14 year old or a 37 year old being played as long as they are winning the tournament. And there's a higher probability of winning the tournament with a 37 year old Chris Gayle or a 39 year old Sangakkara. So yes Salman Iqbal has no incentive to play a 14 year old and why should he? He's not running a charity here. Same for all the owners.

If posters here had $2 million invested of their own, I bet they would pick Chris Gayle 100 times out of 100 over someone like Hasan Mohsin (emerging player).

 

[Saj]

I know there is an emerging category but maybe an idea to have as a rule that each squad has to have a minimum number of players under age 23.

 

[The_Odd_One]

People here don't understand the fact that the franchise owners have invested their money on these teams. ARY bought Karachi for $2.6 million per year. Salman Iqbal does not care whether it's a 14 year old or a 37 year old being played as long as they are winning the tournament. And there's a higher probability of winning the tournament with a 37 year old Chris Gayle or a 39 year old Sangakkara. So yes Salman Iqbal has no incentive to play a 14 year old and why should he? He's not running a charity here. Same for all the owners.

If posters here had $2 million invested of their own, I bet they would pick Chris Gayle 100 times out of 100 over someone like Hasan Mohsin (emerging player).

You got it all wrong. How is it in team owner's interest to play Zulfiqar Babar and not someone like Zafar Gohar or Mohammad Asghar? Do you really think these oldies, specially from Pakistan, are better than younger cricketers?

Why play Chris Gayle when you can get someone like Martin Guptill. This is just an example of how things can be done differently.

 

[Mamoon]

Performance wise, these players do not deserve to play. However, we must understand that the big names is what attracts the casual fans. There is a reason why everyone in Pakistan is interested in the PSL and that is because you have big names like Gayle, Sangakkara, Pietersen, Watson etc. playing.

We have Pakistani players in the National T20 Cup too but no one cares about that tournament. PSL is not in a position to attract the current world class players, so they have no option but to attract big names of the previous generations, even if they are past their prime as cricketers.

 

[Hamza_]

Performance wise, these players do not deserve to play. However, we must understand that the big names is what attracts the casual fans. There is a reason why everyone in Pakistan is interested in the PSL and that is because you have big names like Gayle, Sangakkara, Pietersen, Watson etc. playing.

We have Pakistani players in the National T20 Cup too but no one cares about that tournament. PSL is not in a position to attract the current world class players, so they have no option but to attract big names of the previous generations, even if they are past their prime as cricketers.

[MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] what do you think of Shadab?

 

[Mamoon]

[MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION] what do you think of Shadab?

Looks good. He has an air of confidence which is not normally seen in a young Pakistani player. Both him and Usama should be in the squad for the WI tour. Hafeez should be dropped.

 

[The_Odd_One]

Performance wise, these players do not deserve to play. However, we must understand that the big names is what attracts the casual fans. There is a reason why everyone in Pakistan is interested in the PSL and that is because you have big names like Gayle, Sangakkara, Pietersen, Watson etc. playing.

We have Pakistani players in the National T20 Cup too but no one cares about that tournament. PSL is not in a position to attract the current world class players, so they have no option but to attract big names of the previous generations, even if they are past their prime as cricketers.

If somehow PCB is able to rope in Buttler, Maxwell, Warner, etc. Do you think casual fans will still not tune in to watch them?

 

[Mamoon]

If somehow PCB is able to rope in Buttler, Maxwell, Warner, etc. Do you think casual fans will still not tune in to watch them?

That is my point. If PCB manages to land these players, the casual fans will turn up in bigger numbers. However, that looks difficult at the moment, so the PSL franchises have no option but to continue to milk these big name expired players.

The casual fans do not care about upcoming Pakistani talent. If they did, they would follow the National T20 Cup, but they don't.

 

[Saj]

The issue is that some of these has-beens have contacts at a high level in the PCB and not only do they get picked for the PSL but they get picked for the starting XIs too.

 

[The_Odd_One]

That is my point. If PCB manages to land these players, the casual fans will turn up in bigger numbers. However, that looks difficult at the moment, so the PSL franchises have no option but to continue to milk these big name expired players.

The casual fans do not care about upcoming Pakistani talent. If they did, they would follow the National T20 Cup, but they don't.

I know it is hard to get top players from this era but still a lot of improvement can be made. How many fans want to watch Grant Elliot or Brad Hodge? Even the B grade current cricketers would be an upgrade.

Also, the number of local oldies playing in PSL is an embarrassment and nothing justifies it. Nobody wants to see Zulfiqar Babar or Rafatullah or Umar Gul anymore.