Proposed improvement to salary structure in PSL with a view to improving player quality

[Savak]

Let's say instead of pays of $50,000, $75,000, $100,000, $150,000, $350,000 max, if the PSL was paying the top performing players or elite players salaries of $2, $3, $4 million per season. Will we start witnessing the following?

- Pakistani domestic players taking personal charge of their eating, training habits and making sure they are in tip top shape with six packs, top yo yo scores and looking the part?

- Pakistani players going out of their way to practice fielding under taking daily drills, practicing like they love it even if they hate it deep down to make sure they are fully prepared in the PSL to make important catches, to dive around, to stop singles, twos or being alert on the boundary line to stop crucial boundaries?

- Will we see Pakistani players practice boundary fielding i.e. the art of palming a shot going for six back into the field of play or to another fielder? Or palming the ball gently in the air before his foot touches the boundary and then rushes back into the field of play to take the catch?

- Will we see Pakistani players i.e. the batsmen be forced to be inventive in their stroke play?, Be forced to find a way to figure out how to hit a full blooded yorker aimed at the off stump for six or four i.e. paddles, glides, helicopter shots, reverse sweeps, reverse scoops? Will we see Pakistani players aggressively practice how to tackle defensive line and lengths in T-20 cricket i.e. fast outside the off stump yorkers or a fast bowler coming around the wicket to the right hander aiming at his leg stump?

- Will we see Pakistani batsmen shout scream Kohli style in anger after a soft dismissal, poor shot or in delight after hitting a crucial four, six, match winning innings?

- Will we see Pakistani pacers who usually operate at 138-140 km/hr charging in game after game to bowl at 150 km/hr plus?

I could go on and and on. The reason why i am asking all this is because previously i watched our inaugral National T-20 league i.e. every game and now i have been watching the highlights of all the IPL games and the difference in intensity, quality was crystal clear.

My theory is that the reason why there is so much intensity in the IPL and why the players are so emotional, charged up is because of the life changing sums of money involved and if you do not perform, look the part, that once in a lifetime opportunity is gone and you won't get it back as the Franchises can either drop you, replace you in the current season and not pick you again in the next season and you may end up fetching a lower price in the next season.

Pakistani domestic players in contrast have zero incentive to improve anything given the mediocre pays involved. Chris Gayle got dropped by the PSL after the first two seasons because his performance was not good enough but he honestly didn't care because the PSL at max could only afford to pay him $300,000 whereas the IPL probably pays him $1.5-$2 million and he was a guaranteed pick with the IPL, so he had no real incentive to perform or be pressurized to perform in the PSL.

Thought that this will lead to an interesting discussion

 

[Sher Khan]

Money has little to do with it. Even the PSL pay is life changing for Pakistani people. The fitness and fielding culture doesnt exist in Pakistan. Furthermore, you cant just come out and bowl like Archer and bat like ABD. Their needs to be talent and ability to do all that.

The talented and able players are already playing in the IPL.

 

[Savak]

Money has little to do with it. Even the PSL pay is life changing for Pakistani people. The fitness and fielding culture doesnt exist in Pakistan. Furthermore, you cant just come out and bowl like Archer and bat like ABD. Their needs to be talent and ability to do all that.

The talented and able players are already playing in the IPL.

Actually the local domestic players if they are lucky to get into the PSL at best only end up making $30,000, $50,000 max. The higher pay brackets are reserved for our senior players or experienced players or foreign players. $30,000 to $50,000 is not life changing but $500,000-$1,000,000 for a Pakistani domestic player definitely is.

My theory is that when players are familiar about how much money is on the line and that if they don't maintain certain standards they will permanently lose out on it, they will automatically be forced to grind and practice skills day in day out.

 

[naseem]

Can't compare a 5 6 year old league with a 13 yr old league of a richest board in cricket world.
The revolution in Indian fielding was started long ago 2001 2002 ....before IPL started.
PCB can't keep a proper fielding coach.....what to expect..????
Pak's triumph at 2017 champions trophy was largely due to fielding too.....the young guns fielded well and chipped in with whatever they can ....
What we see next the fielding coach left the job unsatisfied....
IPL or PSL or for that matter ny t20 league is not a academy as KP tried to showcase.........it's business ..
Plain business ......it's about making your franchisee marketable.....

The basic fielding drills practising certain shots comes from practice .....our players are trying although not with much success but they r trying... But I think it doesn't have a relation with money or life changing monetary reward....

It has a lot to do with innate nature culture tradition....if you don't see ur seniors diving
at everything ran like McCallum to save a
Sure sort boundary....then u won't get the
desire the feeling to do so if not same....

Iyer can't be lethargic in a team of Kohli Jadeja...
Same goes for any fresh Kiwi youngster or even
The Englishmen......

One needs foreign modern coaches who will help to attain much level of fitness to carryout such high intensity fielding......u will see saving a sure short 6 or even convert it into a relay catches in KIWI T20 Leagues.....or in BBL...or IPL but not in any domestic
matches of Pak....

 

[Varun]

I've always wondered that for the less ambitious cricketers out there, wouldn't they be content with just one season's worth of money to change their lives?

After that payday, why don't fitness standards reduce and how come they don't become lazy? I'm talking of those guys who have no chance of getting into the Indian team.

 

[Slog]

I've always wondered that for the less ambitious cricketers out there, wouldn't they be content with just one season's worth of money to change their lives?

After that payday, why don't fitness standards reduce and how come they don't become lazy? I'm talking of those guys who have no chance of getting into the Indian team.

Isn’t that the case though. When I followed ipl for the first couple of seasons I remember a few names like Gony, Kamran sth (Shane warne team) and a few others who did very well and then just disappeared.

 

[Slog]

[MENTION=2501]Savak[/MENTION] - where do you propose the money comes from to give contacts ten times the size they currently are?

 

[Varun]

Isn’t that the case though. When I followed ipl for the first couple of seasons I remember a few names like Gony, Kamran sth (Shane warne team) and a few others who did very well and then just disappeared.

Perhaps in the very first season.

But there seem to be a bunch of domestic constants in all teams since the IPL matured.

 

[Savak]

[MENTION=2501]Savak[/MENTION] - where do you propose the money comes from to give contacts ten times the size they currently are?

Lol, this is for the PCB to work out. I just wanted to pose the question that if a certain range of life changing sums of money were offered to our domestic cricketers, would it result in certain things happening

 

[Varun]

[MENTION=2501]Savak[/MENTION] - where do you propose the money comes from to give contacts ten times the size they currently are?

Easy-peasy. Collect Rs. 5/ Rs. 10 from all the kids who play street cricket all over Pakistan.

Credit: Savak from another thread.

 

[Savak]

Easy-peasy. Collect Rs. 5/ Rs. 10 from all the kids who play street cricket all over Pakistan.

Credit: Savak from another thread.

I believe even my street cricket monetization plan is practical and do-able

 

[Slog]

Easy-peasy. Collect Rs. 5/ Rs. 10 from all the kids who play street cricket all over Pakistan.

Credit: Savak from another thread.

Is this tongue in cheek or was this actually suggested?

 

[Savak]

Is this tongue in cheek or was this actually suggested?

Actual suggestion

 

[Slog]

Lol, this is for the PCB to work out. I just wanted to pose the question that if a certain range of life changing sums of money were offered to our domestic cricketers, would it result in certain things happening

You think that the (usually money greedy and short term outlook) PCB has/had the option to be able to offer tens of millions of dollars in contracts but isn’t doing so on their own? Surely you must understandit’s not due to lack of trying. Besides even first world based BBL (I believe perhaps second best league) can only offer sums equivalent to or lower than PSL so if it was a remote possibility then it would already be done. And PCB wouldn do it due to any goodwill but because it would allow them to line up their own pockets even more.

On the other hand. Compared to even six years ago the average domestic cricketer who
Plays in the PSL is already making several times more than they would have made prior to that. And now non-PSL domestic earnings is also increasing every year. So for most of these domestic cricketers who are coming from lower income strata; they are already earning life changing sums so why you’re saying should already be happening if it was to happen.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

You think that the (usually money greedy and short term outlook) PCB has/had the option to be able to offer tens of millions of dollars in contracts but isn’t doing so on their own? Surely you must understandit’s not due to lack of trying. Besides even first world based BBL (I believe perhaps second best league) can only offer sums equivalent to or lower than PSL so if it was a remote possibility then it would already be done. And PCB wouldn do it due to any goodwill but because it would allow them to line up their own pockets even more.

On the other hand. Compared to even six years ago the average domestic cricketer who
Plays in the PSL is already making several times more than they would have made prior to that. And now non-PSL domestic earnings is also increasing every year. So for most of these domestic cricketers who are coming from lower income strata; they are already earning life changing sums so why you’re saying should already be happening if it was to happen.

Business models are capped by total market, not domestic market. That is to say, PSL has yet to tap into the international market beyond Pakistan. An investment into making the league more expensive (more teams, more money, more players, more quality) can help penetrate that market, thus recouping investment.

Just because BBL has not done that yet, doesn’t mean they can’t. It’s all about the willingness to think big. Right now the Aussies are content being where they are, they aren’t even trying to match PSL let alone IPL.

And yes, already life changing sums are involved for Pakistanis, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to look even bigger. Why play catchup to the IPL when we should look at the global market who wants to see high quality cricket in the months of the year when IPL is NOT happening?

 

[Slog]

Business models are capped by total market, not domestic market. That is to say, PSL has yet to tap into the international market beyond Pakistan. An investment into making the league more expensive (more teams, more money, more players, more quality) can help penetrate that market, thus recouping investment.

Just because BBL has not done that yet, doesn’t mean they can’t. It’s all about the willingness to think big. Right now the Aussies are content being where they are, they aren’t even trying to match PSL let alone IPL.

And yes, already life changing sums are involved for Pakistanis, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to look even bigger. Why play catchup to the IPL when we should look at the global market who wants to see high quality cricket in the months of the year when IPL is NOT happening?

The global market doesn’t really care enough for domestic leagues especially pakistan ones. What you say sounds grand and exciting on paper but I don’t really see a plan.

In a realistic world what do you want to see? PSL to increase top salary cap from $250k to $5million? That way we can perhaps attract the top talent which IPL does but Where is the money coming from? Franchises are already losing money and there isn’t the financial muscle to pay up such contracts.

‘Tap global markets’ is an easy thing to say but it’s not a practical statement for a sport which struggles to get eye balls outside the subcontinent. India is a closed market so that’s not happening. UAE has proved to be not a big economic success from a cricketing standpoint for us. Are you expecting local new Zealanders, Aussies and English to take an interest in our league when cricket is not their first sport anyway and they are struggling to drum up interest in their own youth? Giving catchy one liners without any real plan gets us nowhere.

The simple fact is this. The success of a country’s domestic league (esp in cricket) always builds internally and global market capture is a cherry on top. The IPLs success is due to India’s financial muscle which comes due to its insanely huge population. If it didn’t have that population to fall back on then it wouldn’t have been successful like it is. Even now IPL’s viewing figures outisde of India and the Indian diaspora aren’t great. On the other hand BBL has been as successful as it has been commercial despite a low population base due to the relative strength of the economy. But again it’s success is due to domestic factors. PSL has to find a middle ground in that respect.

 

[Xoib]

If a domestic player is unwilling to discipline himself at 30-50 k earnings he will definetley not do at higher value.

A 30-50 k usd for a 20-25 Yr old is very good money and should easily allow him to take care of his diet and fitness.

 

[Thunderbolt14]

The global market doesn’t really care enough for domestic leagues especially pakistan ones. What you say sounds grand and exciting on paper but I don’t really see a plan.

In a realistic world what do you want to see? PSL to increase top salary cap from $250k to $5million? That way we can perhaps attract the top talent which IPL does but Where is the money coming from? Franchises are already losing money and there isn’t the financial muscle to pay up such contracts.

‘Tap global markets’ is an easy thing to say but it’s not a practical statement for a sport which struggles to get eye balls outside the subcontinent. India is a closed market so that’s not happening. UAE has proved to be not a big economic success from a cricketing standpoint for us. Are you expecting local new Zealanders, Aussies and English to take an interest in our league when cricket is not their first sport anyway and they are struggling to drum up interest in their own youth? Giving catchy one liners without any real plan gets us nowhere.

The simple fact is this. The success of a country’s domestic league (esp in cricket) always builds internally and global market capture is a cherry on top. The IPLs success is due to India’s financial muscle which comes due to its insanely huge population. If it didn’t have that population to fall back on then it wouldn’t have been successfully like it is. On the other hand BBL has been as successful as it has been commercial despite a low population base due to the relative strength of the economy. PSL has to find a middle ground in that respect.

Bro it seems you really want me to flesh out an entire 50 page proposal over this internet forum. Lofty goals (that may be unachievable) are still worth ideating - in the process you iterate on ideas and craft a solution.

Otherwise, we are locked in a loop of repetitive ideas within the frame provided to us - out of the box solutions are repressed.

We are merely spitballing here - it’s a technique in design thinking called rapid ideation. [MENTION=2501]Savak[/MENTION] had some constructive (if unfeasible) proposals and I provided some constructive feedback - it’s fine if you don’t want to iterate and build things constructively, but there is no need to tear it down as it provides no benefit to the process. For example, you say “tapping global markets” is impractical - what if we reframed that and instead asked “how can we make it practical?” That’s how ideas begin.

Just my two cents.

 

[Slog]

Bro it seems you really want me to flesh out an entire 50 page proposal over this internet forum. Lofty goals (that may be unachievable) are still worth ideating - in the process you iterate on ideas and craft a solution.

Otherwise, we are locked in a loop of repetitive ideas within the frame provided to us - out of the box solutions are repressed.

We are merely spitballing here - it’s a technique in design thinking called rapid ideation. [MENTION=2501]Savak[/MENTION] had some constructive (if unfeasible) proposals and I provided some constructive feedback - it’s fine if you don’t want to iterate and build things constructively, but there is no need to tear it down as it provides no benefit to the process. For example, you say “tapping global markets” is impractical - what if we reframed that and instead asked “how can we make it practical?” That’s how ideas begin.

Just my two cents.

I think there’s have to be some realism too. I personally think first steps would be to Properly monetize what we already have. I don’t think it is currently. We have a 220mm population and now the league is finally being held at home. Those are two things with other leagues asides from IPL would love to have. At the moment I don’t see local cities really backing their team per se. I see people watching for entertainment rather than really getting behind their city team. So The league and franchises need to sort that first and make people identify with their city team and then make a play for merchandise etc through official channels to make money. Lot of teams have different sponsors but it seems all over the place. That can be more streamlined. And there is a big pakistani diaspora in England which we should tap into. Look to engage that community somehow. Anyways my point is that it has to be built as a strong product internally first rather than prematurely looking for a global market play.

 

[Slog]

Finally I think OP’s premise that more money will make for fitter and harder working cricketers is faulty. Already the money they’re getting is beyond their imaginations 5-6 years ago. And at the end of the day their competition is other domestic players so they’re still playing in an even field in a way. I think it kinda already has gone up but don’t think more money would make a drastic change.

 

[Rana]

Sky sports has a channel dedicated to cricket and they just do not have enough cricket to broadcast for that channel. Wasim Khan can utilise this opportunity and this will be the first start to give the league a greater exposure.

Bring the overseas quota from 4 players max to 2 players max.

Go all out to bring the following players:

Ben Stokes
Jos Butler
Jofra Archer
Anrich Nortje
Kagiso Rabada
Quinton De Kock
David Warner
Steven Smith
Trent Boult


The franchise owners are not poor. Don’t put a salary cap on bidding for the Platinum (Marquee) players.

Why would Sky Sports not want to broadcast its own players?

 

[JattMaula]

I support this idea. Pay cricketers in tens of millions of dollars and they will come. Revolutionary idea. Can make PSL the place to be.

 

[Titan24]

More money could have been involved from the very start if the dynamics of Pakistan cricket would have been different than they were in 2016. PSL was able to make its name against all odds and initial investors as well as PCB realized that odds were against them but, still considering the fan following of cricket in Pakistan and future potential they thought it was a risk worth taking.

If cricket was happening in Pakistan back then and Pakistan cricket had any star power in 2016 (Amir was the inly thing close to that) like Pakistan cricket team has today with someone like Babar and Shaheen in the picture supported by a few others the dynamics would have been different.

When I say dynamics, I am trying to imply the initial interest and investment. None of the biggest groups of Pakistan are involved with PSL as owners and in 2016 it wasnt much attractive investment as there was no cricket happening in Pakistani stadiums and thus low crowd in UAE and thus much lower ticket revenue was expected along with much less hype. It can be easily seen from the the sponsors as well, the quality of which is many folds now in 2020 than it was in 2016.

On the other hand when you see IPL, you see some of India’s biggest groups involved in the setup from the very start. They had a local experiment of infamous ICL, cricket was happening in India and popularity was never in doubt and thus their top groups didnt have to take such a big leap of faith as the initial investors of PSL had to which made the big groups to just sit out.

As I have mentioned before Multan Sultan’s franchise was bought at 3 times its previous value by Ali Tareen (JDW) along with another partner or two who are not small industrialists themselves. JDW is the closest PSL has come in as attracting the biggest groups of Pakistan and even its not one of the biggest. ARY is a big media group but, dynamics of the industrialists who own companies in numerous sectors is a different phenomenon.

I think PSL can be one of the highest paying leagues if enough of the top groups from Pakistan can be involved and cricket fully returns to Pakistan. There is interest of cricket in Pakistan, important thing is to keep on improving on that and its monetization.

The current deal with the initial investors is there till 2026 if I am not wrong. Even with the current structure and franchises the salary cap can be increased as more seasons of PSL take place in Pakistan and overall revenue as well as hype and interest due to it taking place in Pakistan attracts more sponsors.

So considering the state in which PSL started in UAE and the biggest groups werent involved alongside the high potential interest of cricket it shows that there is a quite a roam for salary cap to go up if things are managed and monetized well in my opinion. However, at the moment expecting platinum players to be paid millions of dollars is not feasible.

Regarding National T20 cup, I think the intensity was really good of we compare it to previous domestic competitions and not to forget its just the 2nd season of newly formed domestic structure. Intensity was high due to much better competition and accountability for performances. At the same time I dont think its a valid comparison to compare a normal domestic T20 competition to any country’s premier T20 competition.

 

[Hasan123]

With the current pandemic it is going to be difficult to ask owners to stretch their budget for salaries too much.

 

[MMHS]

That’s a very good idea I think - at the end of the day, money matters. I think if that amount of money can be paid, every cricket board will be forced to release their players including BCCI & even ICC will be forced to give PSL a window.

I was thinking about numbers a bit - for some reason, I have a bad habit of calculating monetary exposure for every action.

6 teams, roughly 25 players each with say 5 pay slabs -

3 players : $4mn each = $12mn
4 players: $3mn each = $$12mn
5 players: $2mn each = $10mn
6 players: $1mn each = $6mn
7 players in emerging & other
: $140,000 each =$1mn
That comes around $41mn

Added to that the operating cost & salary of support staffs, if I take this amount as high as 80% of budget, roughly each franchise will have an annual budget of around $50mn

8 teams, that goes to about $400mn. I think, PCB itself will also have some expenses to run such a show - take another 20%...... net, net annual budget for PSL comes around $500mn or half a billion.

Last July, I was keenly reading an article on PAK’s budget for 2020-21, and converting PKR at 160 per $, it came around $45billion. That makes “proposed” PSL’s annual budget around 1% of PAK’s national annual budget; about 6% of PAK’s defence budget and about 15% of PAK’s education budget involving say I total 230 people including cameramen, scorers & cheerleaders, of a country of 230 million - that’s 1% share of national budget for one in every million - it can definitely be a success with that sort of enthusiasm.

 

[Pakhs]

With the current pandemic it is going to be difficult to ask owners to stretch their budget for salaries too much.

It would be impossible

 

[silentkiller187]

i dont agree raising the salaries of players would lead to a bette rleague, in my opinion the highested paid players in say the IPL almost always fail, because of the high expectations, and because its an easy payday for them, id much rather PSL become a league that attracts players on the cusp of being international stars and develop them instead, we do not need to compete or become another IPL.

 

[shah_1]

I feel salries need to improve but not the level you are talking about

Platinium-350k to 400K
Diamond 200k to 275K
Gold 120k to 150K
Silver 60k to 90K
Emerging 30k to 45K

 

[MMHS]

i dont agree raising the salaries of players would lead to a bette rleague, in my opinion the highested paid players in say the IPL almost always fail, because of the high expectations, and because its an easy payday for them, id much rather PSL become a league that attracts players on the cusp of being international stars and develop them instead, we do not need to compete or become another IPL.

First part of your post isn’t correct actually- if higher paid players fail, then it’s a failure in scouting (draft) - players picked on face valve for wrong format or wrong venue. This year, IPL was planned to be hosted in India and players were drafted for that - it ended up in UAE and that wicket is completely different from what’s there for IPL in India. If you had noticed my initial posts on IPL, I picked four teams for the play-offs - Mumbai, Delhi, Kings XI & RRoyals based on their foreign recruits. Now, at late end, Punjab’s players are getting accustomed with UAE while Butler, Smith & Stokes basically had sunk Royals; same can be said for Cummins for KKR & Russell probably has lost his spot for KKR; Maxwell, Bairstowe, even Warner is struggling on those wickets - Sunrise are carried by Rashid’s four overs. Same team, put Punjab & RR on Indian tracks with lightning outfield and perfect patta tracks, these two teams would have scared everyone.

And, this is not only in cricket, in every sports it can happen. You know the stories of Torres, Shevchenko, Andy Carol .... Genius Pep has blown Abu Dhabi’s annual defence budget for his own defence and now struggling to field one fit striker who won’t miss open net. I can explain it better with Andy Carol’s case - the most expensive Brit in EPL for many years. Dalglish played his soccer last in 1980s, and left management few years later. Then came back from 2 decades wilderness to manage Liverpool - his ideology for English soccer was stuck in 1980s - mad rush through wings and long ball for the muscle man at centre forward who’ll hustle it out. He himself was a genius at wings, later brought John Barnes, Peter Beardsley to feed from wings for Ian Rush. He planned same with Andy Caroll and that guy would have been a monster in 1980s on heavy English fields, when soccer was a contact sports. It failed badly in 2010s, when English soccer moved more on grass than air, playing surface got drier & lot faster and top quality foreign coaches taught English league to play ball on short, fast moving tactical slick passing game - a heavy duty traditional CF like Andy Caroll is obsolete.

PAK cricket will sink further if you believe that PSL can develop players. T20 franchise’s only purpose is to bring money through selling cheap entertainment, that can be reinvested. It has to be financially feasible and that can be possible only by building brands & loyal fan base, not by pouring money. One of the highest followed soccer league in world is Argentine apatura - a league which can be brought by any EPL club or a league that has a lower budget than the English Championship ......... - therefore pouring money is not the solution.

Overblowing budget in chase of golden goose is a recipe of disaster - not only PSL, PCB will go bankrupt .... check the calculations that I have given in my earlier post .... six foreigners, coaching staffs, umpires, media men ..... over $200mn of that budget will be taken out of PAK in green bucks - that’s over 1% of PAK’s foreign reserves..... trust me, PAK’s finance minister will get anxious with these sort of thoughts & plans. I wrote couple of years back that BPL’s budget on players will shrink and it did reduce by 35% last year from previous year - but not the viewership, neither sponsorship money; net, net they had a higher margin with virtually very few quality foreign recruits. That’s the way for every league - build own identity for own market with own sources for a sustainable financial model; just that IPL’s scale is much higher for the size of cricket economy of India.

 

[Savak]

The thread title is misleading, i only asked a simple question that if Pakistani players were potentially eligible to make a certain huge range of money, would it lead to certain outcomes. I know realistically the PCB cannot pay such amounts yet.

 

[shamaan]

The thread title is misleading, i only asked a simple question that if Pakistani players were potentially eligible to make a certain huge range of money, would it lead to certain outcomes. I know realistically the PCB cannot pay such amounts yet.

I think you could say if the above are achieved an incentive should be given like a bonus scheme and if it's not achieved they have certain amount of time before their contracts are avoided

 

[shamaan]

I feel salries need to improve but not the level you are talking about

Platinium-350k to 400K
Diamond 200k to 275K
Gold 120k to 150K
Silver 60k to 90K
Emerging 30k to 45K

I think they should do it in domestic competition instead of psl

 

[silentkiller187]

First part of your post isn’t correct actually- if higher paid players fail, then it’s a failure in scouting (draft) - players picked on face valve for wrong format or wrong venue. This year, IPL was planned to be hosted in India and players were drafted for that - it ended up in UAE and that wicket is completely different from what’s there for IPL in India. If you had noticed my initial posts on IPL, I picked four teams for the play-offs - Mumbai, Delhi, Kings XI & RRoyals based on their foreign recruits. Now, at late end, Punjab’s players are getting accustomed with UAE while Butler, Smith & Stokes basically had sunk Royals; same can be said for Cummins for KKR & Russell probably has lost his spot for KKR; Maxwell, Bairstowe, even Warner is struggling on those wickets - Sunrise are carried by Rashid’s four overs. Same team, put Punjab & RR on Indian tracks with lightning outfield and perfect patta tracks, these two teams would have scared everyone.

And, this is not only in cricket, in every sports it can happen. You know the stories of Torres, Shevchenko, Andy Carol .... Genius Pep has blown Abu Dhabi’s annual defence budget for his own defence and now struggling to field one fit striker who won’t miss open net. I can explain it better with Andy Carol’s case - the most expensive Brit in EPL for many years. Dalglish played his soccer last in 1980s, and left management few years later. Then came back from 2 decades wilderness to manage Liverpool - his ideology for English soccer was stuck in 1980s - mad rush through wings and long ball for the muscle man at centre forward who’ll hustle it out. He himself was a genius at wings, later brought John Barnes, Peter Beardsley to feed from wings for Ian Rush. He planned same with Andy Caroll and that guy would have been a monster in 1980s on heavy English fields, when soccer was a contact sports. It failed badly in 2010s, when English soccer moved more on grass than air, playing surface got drier & lot faster and top quality foreign coaches taught English league to play ball on short, fast moving tactical slick passing game - a heavy duty traditional CF like Andy Caroll is obsolete.

PAK cricket will sink further if you believe that PSL can develop players. T20 franchise’s only purpose is to bring money through selling cheap entertainment, that can be reinvested. It has to be financially feasible and that can be possible only by building brands & loyal fan base, not by pouring money. One of the highest followed soccer league in world is Argentine apatura - a league which can be brought by any EPL club or a league that has a lower budget than the English Championship ......... - therefore pouring money is not the solution.

Overblowing budget in chase of golden goose is a recipe of disaster - not only PSL, PCB will go bankrupt .... check the calculations that I have given in my earlier post .... six foreigners, coaching staffs, umpires, media men ..... over $200mn of that budget will be taken out of PAK in green bucks - that’s over 1% of PAK’s foreign reserves..... trust me, PAK’s finance minister will get anxious with these sort of thoughts & plans. I wrote couple of years back that BPL’s budget on players will shrink and it did reduce by 35% last year from previous year - but not the viewership, neither sponsorship money; net, net they had a higher margin with virtually very few quality foreign recruits. That’s the way for every league - build own identity for own market with own sources for a sustainable financial model; just that IPL’s scale is much higher for the size of cricket economy of India.

So we can agree the higher paid players are not performing, regardless of reason, the point i made and maybe i did not articulate myself well enough was a simple answer in response to the OP, just by raising the salary of players in the PSL will not mean better standard of cricket. Weather you agree or not most of the players in these leagues put in about 50-70% effort while commanding huge sums of money, blame the scouts , the pitches , the countries, the bed, the type of breakfast they eat and so on and so forth, but the fact still remains the same.

Rather than following the model of say china and what they have done in Football, PSL would be better suited to follow a model of say the dutch or even the germans to a certain extent, you do not need star players , you need hungry players who are willing to develop themselves into the next big thing, that will help the development of the player himself, but also the players they are playing with. PSL is already showing some promising signs, and we have seen a few youngsters come through, give it another 5-10 years and you will see the improvement in quality of our all round t20 game, i can only see it growing rather than sinking.

 

[shamaan]

I think pakistan should use the above in doesmtic qaid e azam national cup and put incentives for the players and penalise people do not work on the above

 

[shah_1]

I think they should do it in domestic competition instead of psl

I agree

 

[MMHS]

So we can agree the higher paid players are not performing, regardless of reason, the point i made and maybe i did not articulate myself well enough was a simple answer in response to the OP, just by raising the salary of players in the PSL will not mean better standard of cricket. Weather you agree or not most of the players in these leagues put in about 50-70% effort while commanding huge sums of money, blame the scouts , the pitches , the countries, the bed, the type of breakfast they eat and so on and so forth, but the fact still remains the same.

Rather than following the model of say china and what they have done in Football, PSL would be better suited to follow a model of say the dutch or even the germans to a certain extent, you do not need star players , you need hungry players who are willing to develop themselves into the next big thing, that will help the development of the player himself, but also the players they are playing with. PSL is already showing some promising signs, and we have seen a few youngsters come through, give it another 5-10 years and you will see the improvement in quality of our all round t20 game, i can only see it growing rather than sinking.

The best example is probably French League 1 - producing works class players and sell them abroad by 23, and these kids gets the highest amount of minutes between the age of 18-23 in anywhere in world. Their branding is based on youth - the tag line used also emphasises the exciting talent that they unleash.

Top paying players are not performing often not because they are not trying hard. It’s a wrong concept that PP loves to believe - players don’t give 100%!in IPL!!!! Do you think these IPL franchise are run by PP trolls - they are top professionals in their area; if they see slightest of lack of commitments, that player might loose his fortune next time, even forever. I give one more example from WSC - in 1970s context, it was like what is IPL today - each & every player gave everything they had and Packer wasn’t any slouch when it comes to action...

I don’t think PSL is going to bring any improvement in PAK cricket but I might be wrong. For my argument, I’ll say there was no PSL, PAK players had one or two IPL season and there were no other such leagues - still that PAK team of Afridi, ARazzak, Ajmal, Gul .... were top T20 team around. It’s the basic skill of cricket that you learn, then apply that according to the tempo of the game & every format has some unique skill set requirements - it has nothing to do with the quality of your Franchise league; otherwise AFGs won’t have been a better T20 team than BD.

 

[silentkiller187]

The best example is probably French League 1 - producing works class players and sell them abroad by 23, and these kids gets the highest amount of minutes between the age of 18-23 in anywhere in world. Their branding is based on youth - the tag line used also emphasises the exciting talent that they unleash.

Top paying players are not performing often not because they are not trying hard. It’s a wrong concept that PP loves to believe - players don’t give 100%!in IPL!!!! Do you think these IPL franchise are run by PP trolls - they are top professionals in their area; if they see slightest of lack of commitments, that player might loose his fortune next time, even forever. I give one more example from WSC - in 1970s context, it was like what is IPL today - each & every player gave everything they had and Packer wasn’t any slouch when it comes to action...

I don’t think PSL is going to bring any improvement in PAK cricket but I might be wrong. For my argument, I’ll say there was no PSL, PAK players had one or two IPL season and there were no other such leagues - still that PAK team of Afridi, ARazzak, Ajmal, Gul .... were top T20 team around. It’s the basic skill of cricket that you learn, then apply that according to the tempo of the game & every format has some unique skill set requirements - it has nothing to do with the quality of your Franchise league; otherwise AFGs won’t have been a better T20 team than BD.

I think we can both agree with the premise of raising the salary and the effects it will have, will have to agree to disagree regarding the reason why players are not performing or putting in effort.

But i genuinely believe PSL will have a positive impact on the brand of cricket our players start playing and the type of players that will come through in the future, the names you mentioned were brilliant players but they have never been replaced, PSL has allowed for a stage for youngsters to step up and make a name for themselves, give it a few more years and i think we will see at least 3 or 4 established names in the setup that may not have had a chance if it wasn't for the psl.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

The thread title is misleading, i only asked a simple question that if Pakistani players were potentially eligible to make a certain huge range of money, would it lead to certain outcomes. I know realistically the PCB cannot pay such amounts yet.

I think there is no easy answer to it.
Here is how I look at it, and I know that I have to keep in mind that cricket has greatly commercialized over the last decade or so. More than sports, it has now become a business where all what matters is money.

However, if you look back (and I am not going back all the way to Hanif Muhammad who said that he used to go the ground on a bicycle to play TEST cricket. And he got paid Rs 50 for each TEST match), but if you look at our recent greats of the past and ask yourself, if they played great cricket because they got highly paid? And the answer is probably, No.

Wasim Waqar Inzi, Javed, Imran, MoYo, YK etc, none got paid even a fraction of what a top paid IPL player gets paid in one season.

So for Pakistan, I think it's not the money.
It's the lackluster culture in the modern day domestic Pak cricketers.

I believe they already get paid quite handsomely when you at look at their backgrounds. These are truly dream salaries within Pakistan. Many of these players basically come from those chouthi jamaat fail, mochi, nayee, darzi type humble backgrounds. Apparently, they may not be smart enough to learn any new skill or trade that will earn them a good living. So for them, it's a pretty darn good salary structure.
Some got paid up to $140K. Who are you kidding with? This is A LOT of money for a Pak player.

And here is the problem to expand on the bold text above.

Our domestic cricket culture has this "Shahaana mizaaj" atmosphere.
There is no concept of expanding your skill set and become more impactful of a player after you have gained some initial success.

Almost every player has an expertise in a small limited area, and that's the end of the world for him.

Take for example, Azam Khan.
He believes he is a big hitter - and that's it!
He won't think in terms of expanding his skill set and practice hard to become a great runner between the wickets, just in case if the bowling attack is good enough to limit him from hitting big.
He won't either try to hard to become a good fielder, so that his batting input should not go in vain due to his poor display in the field.
Same goes with Sharjeel, and many other players.

Think about it in these terms.
Do the coaches and trainers tell Kohli to have a super fit workout routine and watch your food in take?
I don't think so! He does it on his own to stay on top.

On the other hand, if it was not FORCED upon many Pak players to exercise, stay fit, work out and avoid paratha and biryaani etc, they would look like Tahir Ashrafi.

 

[Savak]

My question is why do players in the IPL play under so much stress, as if their lives depend on it but the PSL players and the Pakistan Domestic players do not? Its very simple, life changing sums of money if you add it or remove it from someone's life can completely change it.

 

[shamaan]

I agree

Psl happens once every 4 weeks the qaid e azam national cup and the 50 over competition is over the course of 5 months you can evaluate it better