PCB shuns idea of turning PSL into autonomous entity [Update Post #13]

[Donal Cozzie]

LAHORE: The Pakistan Super League (PSL) will work as a separate company comprising five members while remaining under the custody of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), it was decided after the Board of Governors meeting on Tuesday.

The PCB will own total control and profits coming from the lucrative league as well, the country’s cricket chief Shaharyar Khan and PCB’s executive committee chairman Najam Sethi said at a joint news conference after a meeting which stretched eight hours.

“We had reservations over forming a separate company of the PSL but after Sethi [who worked as PSL’s chairman in its first edition last year] clarified that PCB will remain the parent body of the league, we were convinced,” Shaharyar said.

Sethi said that at first the SECP’s laws were not permitting any role of the PCB in PSL’s company as all the directors should’ve been from outside the PCB.

“The federal finance ministry, however, is now ready to make an amendment, allowing the company to have majority of the directors from PCB,” Sethi explained.

He informed that the company would be run by a five-member board including him, Mansoor Masood Khan (UBL) and Shakil Sheikh (Islamabad Region) from the PCB, and Arif Habib and Zia Rizvi from outside.

“One of the PCB nominees will be the CEO while one of the outside directors would be the chairman,” he added.

Sethi and Arif Habib look set to fill those posts respectively.

“The terms of tenure are yet to be decided since the constitution is still in the works but it will be finalized soon after consulting the five PSL franchises,” Sethi said.

“All over the world, leagues and boards work as private companies and we’re making strict arrangements to avoid any malpractices in the PSL affairs.”

Shaharyar, meanwhile, assured that there will be no case of conflict of interest as there will be definite roles assigned — both in the PCB and the PSL.

Answering a question about the conflict of interest in the roles of Director Academies Mudassar Nazar, Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur, selection committee member Tauseef Ahmed and some other PCB employees who enjoy roles with PSL teams, Shaharyar said that the practice would be stopped.

“This point was raised in the meeting of the Board of Governors and it has been decided that such conflict of interest will be avoided in the future,” he said

Sethi attended the last International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Cape Town as Shaharyar wasn’t well after heart surgery and informed that he’d strongly raised a case against the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) for constantly avoiding playing bilateral series against Pakistan.

“We’re suffering from a lot of financial losses since India refuses to play bilateral series against us and we’ve demanded compensation,” he said.

“The ICC has admitted our case and a committee has been formed under Giles Clarke to decide how to help the PCB.

“We’ve also asked the ICC to award us the points for every match of the pre-decided bilateral series that India refuses to play against us.”

Shaharyar meanwhile said that the meeting praised the performance of the national team in the recently concluded series against the West Indies as well as the preceding one against England.

“We hope for same performances in the upcoming series against New Zealand and Australia,” Shaharyar added.

The PCB chief said that special attention would be given to remote regions of Balochistan, Fata and Azad Kashmir and steps will be taken to promote the game there.

“The Fata region especially has been producing good batsmen, all-rounders and bowlers, so it deserves more attention,” Shaharyar said.

He said the reports of different committees including human resources, game development and others were received and studied and the decisions would be taken in the next meeting to be held in Karachi.

“The PCB would also take a decision in Karachi on how to honour Pakistan’s legendary batsman Hanif Mohammad [who passed away recently],” he added.

“The Kardar Cup would also be started in which government and private schools would first take part at the district and regional levels and then top schools would come to play at the national level.”

He said the meeting also decided not to change the current format of the domestic cricket in which both departmental and regional cricket teams were playing together in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy.

Shaharyar concluded saying that the BoG had raised no objection over the medical expense incurred on his heart surgery, which took place in London.

“As I do not get any pay from the PCB and work on a honorary basis, so the BOG members raised no objection on this emergency medical expense,” he clarified.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1295078/psl-to-be-a-separate-company-under-pcb-control

 

[Donal Cozzie]

Personally speaking, and I'm willing to be corrected on this if wrong, but I cant see how this makes sense or why this decision has been made.

- The PCB now only draws a minor portion of the revenue from the PSL, as opposed to controlling and having claim to all of it. Why on earth would you make a decision that would lower your revenue?? I'm assuming that the PSL makes a tidy profit and considering the TV deals, popularity in Pakistan and such, I dont think thats a foolish assumption to make. If and or when the PSL migrates to Pakistan the revenues will explode even more as the competition will likely sell out every match. While the PCB won't have to bear any costs with this decision, its revenue will drop. And considering the PSL exists as a domestic league in a territory governed by the PCB this makes zero sense to me.

- The cynic in me looks at this decision and thinks that some PCB/non PCB officials thought of this idea as a very convenient and easy way of securing a job requiring little to no work for at least half the year but a nice pay cheque all year round. Why a month long domestic tourney requires a CEO and other officials, all of whom will be paid yearly I imagine, escapes me when the PSL has been successfully organised twice now by the PCB as another event, instead of being a separate entity.

- As far as I'm aware, and I could very well be wrong here, but no other t20 league has this sort of set-up? I thought the CPL was, but the WICB are the administrators of that league and hire a firm to run it if I'm not wrong, run by an O Donohue or some Irish surname like that.

- End of the day the PCB are giving up control of arguably their biggest cash cow in a time when their finances are probably lower than they've been for a while (given the calls for ICC assistance). I just cant see why giving up what I can only imagine being a relatively sizeable portion of the revenue and handing it to the already rich franchise owners accomplishes.

- An article stated that the PCB were reluctant to explain the decision and implied that this decision was made basically so there would be another, new, influential area of cricket for someone to claim control of during these little power battles that regularly take place in the PCB. Considering the PCB chairman himself came out and said he was worried about the PSL separating from the PCB this seems a likely cause.

- Heavily implied that while its a subsidiary of the PCB it'll work completely independent of it. So could we potentially see a situation where the PSL's interests conflict with those of the PCB? What happens then? This wasn't an issue before but now that the PSL is independent we could well see this happen.

TLDR; if the PCB were as they said doing this to counter political fluctuations then they could easily have just given a PSL executive role to somebody while maintaining full control of the competition, least I cant see any reason why this couldn't have been done. Itd cost less, maintain PCB control over its prized domestic tournament and allow it full access to the profits and revenues of said tournament. Yet they've done this instead. Maybe I'm being completely boneheaded here but I just dont see why this decision has been made

Am I missing something here :/

 

[Abdullah719]

The cynic in me looks at this decision and thinks that some PCB/non PCB officials thought of this idea as a very convenient and easy way of securing a job requiring little to no work for at least half the year but a nice pay cheque all year round. Why a month long domestic tourney requires a CEO and other officials, all of whom will be paid yearly I imagine, escapes me when the PSL has been successfully organised twice now by the PCB as another event, instead of being a separate entity.

This is essentially what this whole episode looks like, specially when you see the names being mentioned for the Directors' roles.

 

[jeetu]

Other media outlets are reporting this as well
http://sport360.com/article/cricket...league-set-to-become-private-limited-company/

All five franchises agreed on Monday that it was necessary to keep the PSL, which kicks off in the UAE in February 2017, separate from PCB politics. Despite the proposal of making it a private limited company, the PSL will still be maintained by the board – where the majority of PSL Board members will come from the PCB.

But it has been decided that two independent directors will be brought in to keep up the transparency.

While the franchises agreed and backed the idea, there has been debate on having nominations on the PSL board from the franchises as well.

The five franchises – Islamabad United, Karachi Kings, Lahore Qalandars, Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi – feel that there should be their representation on the PSL Board because they are the major stakeholders and thus they should have a say.

It has been learnt that in the past two meetings of PCB Board of Governors the idea of PSL being made a private limited company has been principally approved but the official confirmation has not yet been made.

However, the meetings of the PCB governing board will finally decide the fate of how PSL will run going forward.

"For the betterment of PSL, it’s important to keep a top product away from all the politics of PCB," one of the franchise representatives said.

"In the longer run, PSL will only be a success if it is run as a private limited company. More than PCB, it is the franchises for whom the stakes are really high which is why their say should hold value as well."

 

[jeetu]

New PSL set-up will face challenges: Khalid Mehmood

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1228153/new-psl-set-will-face-challenges-mehmood/

Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Khalid Mehmood has backed the idea of making the Pakistan Super League (PSL) a separate entity, saying the decision will motivate the franchises but he warned that an overhaul in the government setup will pose a huge challenge for the lucrative league.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced earlier this week that the PSL will work separately after its governing body gave thumbs up to the same proposal at a Board of Governors (BOG) meeting in Lahore.

The PSL will remain under PCB’s control but will have a new board including five directors — three from the PCB and two from outside it.

PCB’s executive committee chief Najam Sethi and BOG members Mansoor Masood Khan and Shakil Sheikh represent the board, while industrialist Arif Habib and corporate lawyer Zia Rizvi were named as the two external directors.

As per the rules, one of the external directors will become the PSL chairman while one the directors from within the PCB will become the Chief Executive Officer. Habib and Sethi have been tipped to take the two positions respectively.

“On paper it appears to be a good idea,” Mehmood told The Express Tribune. “The PSL has not been privatised as it remains under the ownership of PCB.”

Mehmood feels the system can lead to several benefits. “The PSL should work more systematically under the new setup as it will become an independent body,” he said. “Leagues from other countries also work as separate legal entities. There should be more accountability and checks of the officials. But the outcome of this development remains to be seen.”

One of the reasons given by PCB officials behind making PSL a separate entity is to counter political restrictions as a change in government also brings an overhaul in PCB’s hierarchy.

“A change in government will still be a serious challenge for the new PSL set-up. An overhaul in the board’s leadership is inevitable with a political change in Pakistan,” he said. “PCB officials are mistaken if they think they will be able to retain their positions in case of that change.”

 

[Fahdi]

I think the franchises may have had a role in this. Going by PCB's history inept chairmen, politics may hamper the progress of the PCB. The franchises would probably feel more secure with this setup.

Then again I am no expert in matters of finance or economics.

 

[Major]

The moment you read sheikh shakils name, you know this will end bad

 

[static]

anything shakil sheikh does, it's only and only for his own benefit

 

[Abdullah719]

Privatisation of PSL suicidal for Pakistan cricket, PM told

Former chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan on Thursday, in a letter written to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said privatisation of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) would be suicidal for cricket in Pakistan.

He also said that the privatisation of PSL will benefit few individuals.

"Board of governors of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in a meeting on November 08, 2016 had presented a resolution demanding formalising PSL as an independent private limited company and privatising the PSL will soon demolish the infrastructure of cricket in Pakistan. It will badly affect both our national and international cricket,” read the letter.

The former head of the sports committee wrote in the letter that domestic cricket was already facing a shortage of funds due to lack of international cricket on home grounds and detaching the PSL brand from PCB will increase the dearth of funds as this is a major source of income.

“Cricket leagues like PSL are held to bring cash to their cricket board, but after this step PCB will remain deprived and the political influential individuals will fill their pockets,” the latter added.

Iqbal asked the premier to intervene in this matter and stop privatisation of the only cricket league of Pakistan.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1298388/privatisation-of-psl-suicidal-for-pakistan-cricket-pm-told

 

[Haroon786]

Why PCB's hara kiri..?

Due to the nature of the situation, created out of the extremely strange resolution, adopted by the Board of Governors of the PCB, in its last meeting held on 8 November, 2016 (to register PSL as an independent Private Limited Company which will be a separate entity run by its own governing board), a grave crisis has been created, which can only be resolved by immediate and direct intervention by the prime minister.

Nowhere, repeat nowhere in the cricket Test playing countries, T20 Cricket League is a separate company from its cricket board. The separation of PSL from the PCB is not a decision in the interest of Pakistan cricket, but may benefit few individuals.

In all Test cricket playing nations, only one cricket board is directly responsible for regulating all types of cricketing activities in their respective countries. If in Pakistan, two competing organisations are allowed to control cricket, it will very soon demolish the structure and the edifice of the PCB, along with the domestic cricket.

In Pakistan domestic cricketing structure and standard of the game is already suffering badly, due to the acute shortage of funds; because no international cricket team has visited Pakistan, to play a complete series, since the year 2009. Under the peculiar circumstances of cricket in Pakistan, the cricket lovers are shocked at the hara kiri of the BOG of the PCB, in allowing its cash cow (PSL) to detach itself from the PCB: that too on without any plausible reasons. The shortage of funds is so acute with the PCB that it cannot even spend money to provide playing practice in domestic games on imported Kookaburra cricket balls; and PCB has even requested to the ICC to create a fund for some financial assistance to the PCB.

Everyone remembers that when top Pakistani players were not allowed to play for the national team (as they had opted for joining Kerry Packer’s World Series team), what happened to our national team’s performance. Here also a situation is clearly apprehended in which, players, coaches and management staff will opt to go towards more lucrative PSL, even if they were to take an early retirement. This situation will badly affect on Pakistan teams future supply line of quality manpower.

Cricket leagues in all countries are considered CASH COWS for the respective cricket boards. What is the the justification to cannibalise PCB by just putting forward the reason of POLITICS? The best way to minimise politics in any organisation (read PCB) is to strictly implement the policies of transparency and accountability and zero tolerance in conflict of interest situations.

When even the audit report of the 1st PSL event has not been submitted to the BOG of the PCB, on which tangible and solid reasons it has decided to form a separate company for the PSL? There are several questions that call for answers.

Is the hurry and rush for creating separate company for PSL was due to the reason to create permanent and highly lucrative jobs for the few individuals, who may be foreseeing the end of their tenure in the PCB, in near future?

If the decision to make a separate company for PSL was taken because of the failure of the first PSL or non achievement of the desired and expected results, then why not to first have the accountability of the concerned personnel of the PSL management, who were wholly and solely responsible for running and managing the PSL, with ZERO interference from either the chairman PCB or anyone from the PM office?

And if at all the formation of an independent PSL company is inevitable; such failed persons must not be allowed to ruin the new company from the outset. If the first PSL is found to be a successful event (after receiving the financial and management audit reports separately) then very logical question arises that what was the requirement of taking such a hugely damaging action against the PCB, whose funds and full resources were used in such a callous manner that almost Rs.4 Crore were spent on just one PSL dinner at Lahore?

Those who say that the Indian Supreme Court has asked the BCCI to form a separate body for IPL, are not giving the following additional information: The BCCI is registered under the societies Registration Act. PCB is a statutory body formed by an Act of the GOP and currently under ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination. The constitution of the PCB and its amendments are always issued by the GOP through official gazette notifications.

Even after the orders of the Indian Supreme Court (ISC) the BCCI has not gone for the formation of a separate IPL body; and a legal battle is still on, between the BCCI and the ISC.

Some people in PCB are in a rush for the separate PSL company even when accounts of its first event have not been audited, but BCCI which started IPL in 2008 and has since played nine tournaments, has still not separated IPL from the BCCI.

Prime Minister, from the foregoing narration of facts, can vouch for himself that the PCB is not in competent and safe hands and it has utterly failed to safeguard even its own corporate interests and thus needs PM’s immediate surgical strike to stem the rot, before it is too late to act.

http://nation.com.pk/sports/01-Dec-2016/why-pcb-s-hara-kiri

 

[moghul]

Due to the nature of the situation, created out of the extremely strange resolution, adopted by the Board of Governors of the PCB, in its last meeting held on 8 November, 2016 (to register PSL as an independent Private Limited Company which will be a separate entity run by its own governing board), a grave crisis has been created, which can only be resolved by immediate and direct intervention by the prime minister.

Nowhere, repeat nowhere in the cricket Test playing countries, T20 Cricket League is a separate company from its cricket board. The separation of PSL from the PCB is not a decision in the interest of Pakistan cricket, but may benefit few individuals.

In all Test cricket playing nations, only one cricket board is directly responsible for regulating all types of cricketing activities in their respective countries. If in Pakistan, two competing organisations are allowed to control cricket, it will very soon demolish the structure and the edifice of the PCB, along with the domestic cricket.

In Pakistan domestic cricketing structure and standard of the game is already suffering badly, due to the acute shortage of funds; because no international cricket team has visited Pakistan, to play a complete series, since the year 2009. Under the peculiar circumstances of cricket in Pakistan, the cricket lovers are shocked at the hara kiri of the BOG of the PCB, in allowing its cash cow (PSL) to detach itself from the PCB: that too on without any plausible reasons. The shortage of funds is so acute with the PCB that it cannot even spend money to provide playing practice in domestic games on imported Kookaburra cricket balls; and PCB has even requested to the ICC to create a fund for some financial assistance to the PCB.

Everyone remembers that when top Pakistani players were not allowed to play for the national team (as they had opted for joining Kerry Packer’s World Series team), what happened to our national team’s performance. Here also a situation is clearly apprehended in which, players, coaches and management staff will opt to go towards more lucrative PSL, even if they were to take an early retirement. This situation will badly affect on Pakistan teams future supply line of quality manpower.

Cricket leagues in all countries are considered CASH COWS for the respective cricket boards. What is the the justification to cannibalise PCB by just putting forward the reason of POLITICS? The best way to minimise politics in any organisation (read PCB) is to strictly implement the policies of transparency and accountability and zero tolerance in conflict of interest situations.

When even the audit report of the 1st PSL event has not been submitted to the BOG of the PCB, on which tangible and solid reasons it has decided to form a separate company for the PSL? There are several questions that call for answers.

Is the hurry and rush for creating separate company for PSL was due to the reason to create permanent and highly lucrative jobs for the few individuals, who may be foreseeing the end of their tenure in the PCB, in near future?

If the decision to make a separate company for PSL was taken because of the failure of the first PSL or non achievement of the desired and expected results, then why not to first have the accountability of the concerned personnel of the PSL management, who were wholly and solely responsible for running and managing the PSL, with ZERO interference from either the chairman PCB or anyone from the PM office?

And if at all the formation of an independent PSL company is inevitable; such failed persons must not be allowed to ruin the new company from the outset. If the first PSL is found to be a successful event (after receiving the financial and management audit reports separately) then very logical question arises that what was the requirement of taking such a hugely damaging action against the PCB, whose funds and full resources were used in such a callous manner that almost Rs.4 Crore were spent on just one PSL dinner at Lahore?

Those who say that the Indian Supreme Court has asked the BCCI to form a separate body for IPL, are not giving the following additional information: The BCCI is registered under the societies Registration Act. PCB is a statutory body formed by an Act of the GOP and currently under ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination. The constitution of the PCB and its amendments are always issued by the GOP through official gazette notifications.

Even after the orders of the Indian Supreme Court (ISC) the BCCI has not gone for the formation of a separate IPL body; and a legal battle is still on, between the BCCI and the ISC.

Some people in PCB are in a rush for the separate PSL company even when accounts of its first event have not been audited, but BCCI which started IPL in 2008 and has since played nine tournaments, has still not separated IPL from the BCCI.

Prime Minister, from the foregoing narration of facts, can vouch for himself that the PCB is not in competent and safe hands and it has utterly failed to safeguard even its own corporate interests and thus needs PM’s immediate surgical strike to stem the rot, before it is too late to act.

http://nation.com.pk/sports/01-Dec-2016/why-pcb-s-hara-kiri

So, after distributing team owners share, rest of the earning will not be spent on domestic cricket and cricketers, rather will fill up the deep pockets of some individuals . Wow, brilliant, only in Pakistan. Who needs Panama.

 

[Abdullah719]

IHC serves notice to PCB’s patron-in-chief in PSL case

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday sought reply from Patron-in-Chief Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Board of Governors (BoD) in a case against the resolution passed for making Pakistan Super League (PSL) a private limited company.

A single member bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamir Farooq heard the case filed by civil society seeking to declare the above resolution as null and void.

The counsel for the petitioner Tariq Asad Advocate argued that PCB was responsible to promote cricket game in Pakistan and monitoring its affairs. PCB couldn't pass such resolution in accordance with law, he added.

He said the PSL was a mega profitable event and this was the basic reason that it had been decided to convert it into a private company just to benefit a certain group of people.

He argued that Najam Sethi was running the affairs of PCB due to having close terms with Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif who was Patron In Chief of PCB.

The two members of PCB's BoG including Najam Sethi and Shakeel Sheikh were working in cricket board despite of corruption allegations, he further said.

He claimed that Rs 40 million were spent on only a one dinner event in Lahore, saying that further facts related to irregularities could also be disclosed after studying the audit report of PSL first season.

He said making PSL a separate private company was a bid to give a chance to some government's favorit people to earn money.

After hearing the arguments, the court served notices to Patron In Chief of PCB and its BoD, and adjourned hearing of the case.

It may be mentioned here that PCB had passed a resolution in its meeting on November 8, 2016 for making PSL a private company.

According to the resolution PSL would work as a separate company comprising five members while remaining under the custody of PCB. The members board would include Najam Sethi, Mansoor Masood Khan (UBL) and Shakil Sheikh (Islamabad Region) from the PCB, and Arif Habib and Zia Rizvi from outside.

One of the PCB nominees will be the CEO while one of the outside directors would be the chairman.

http://dailytimes.com.pk/islamabad/17-Dec-16/ihc-serves-notice-to-pcbs-patron-in-chief-in-psl-case

 

[Abdullah719]

PCB shuns idea of turning PSL into autonomous entity

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to organise the Pakistan Super League (PSL) itself instead of making it an autonomous company.

PSL chairman Najam Sethi had announced in March this year, after the successful second edition of the league, that they were making the PSL an independent body.

But the PCB’s Board of Governors had not been ready for that without involvement of the PCB in its affairs.

The existing laws of the SECP did not allow induction of parent body (PCB) officials into a private company.

The PCB had at last got information from the finance ministry that the latter were changing laws of the SECP after which it would be possible for the PCB to nominate its officials for the PSL.

Hoping for changes in the existing laws, PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan and Najam Sethi had held a joint press conference, announcing that two officials from the PCB as directors and three from outside would be named in the PSL.

They had been hoping for necessary changes in the laws of the SECP in near future but no change was made.

“Yes, we were hoping for a change in the laws of the SECP but they were not changed because of opposition from different quarters, so, we have now decided to run the PSL ourselves (PCB) instead of making it a separate entity,” Sethi told Dawn, when contacted to comment on the latest development.

There are reports that there were several complications in inducting officials of the PCB as directors into the PSL because several government projects are being run under supervision of independent companies without involvement of government officials.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1347757/pcb-shuns-idea-of-turning-psl-into-autonomous-entity