The illogical home/away scheduling of PSL games

[Savak]

They had decided to hold the first leg of the PSL in Karachi and Multan from Feb 13 to Feb 26 and then the Lahore and Rawalpindi Leg from Feb 26 to March 19 onwards. They may have done this because it is expensive to make production, logistical arrangements to hold the tournament in 4 venues.

The problem i am seeing with having 7-8 consecutive games in 1-2 venues is the following

- The pitches suffering from wear, tear due to having matches daily or every one day given insufficient time for recovery. As games have gone on the pitches have become slower, lower and have started to favour teams with excellent change of pace bowlers

- Teams like Karachi and Multan have been overburdened and have had to play 4 quick games rapidly in a short period of time given no time for rest, recovery, preparation

- Local population getting an over doze of PSL and a decline in stadium attendance

- Non-local teams like Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad United have low fan turnouts given that their teams are playing in stadiums which have seen an overdose of Cricket in the last one week.

If the PCB was smart they will in the future make efforts to hold neutral non home side games in other stadiums, cities like Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Muzzafarabad e.t.c. We have to promote the PSL in these cities as well.

How does India go about its home-away scheduling for the IPL?

 

[Angrez Pakistani]

PCB just wants to limit the logistical cost of home and away games as they happen across other leagues. Plus, the cost of travel compared with PPP is maybe a bit higher in Pakistan then in some other countries. Maybe PCB can sign a contract with local airline to sponsor the logistics for PCB. But it’s not practical with so few teams in the competition.

 

[MenInG]

To be honest, there is no ONE way to do this.

Until Peshawar and Quetta get their own home grounds, we don't have much of a choice.

 

[Officer Barbrady]

To be honest, there is no ONE way to do this.

Until Peshawar and Quetta get their own home grounds, we don't have much of a choice.

Yes that and travel costs. Flying people to and from Karachi is very costly.

 

[AamchiMumbaikar]

In IPL all teams play 1 game at home and 1 at opposition home (away)

Home teams get to experiment couple of home matches in catchment areas (states/ regions which are closer to the club) to increase fan base, that's it. Eg: Delhi if they want can play a home match in Himachal/ Uttarakhand which are close by to increase fan base. SRH can play a home match in Vizag.

I am talking about non COVID era

 

[Officer Barbrady]

IPL is a much richer league. I suspect the games are also more spread apart since it’s a longer season.

We have to do what makes sense for us. And the current schedule works well enough. They continue to adapt as the # of venues hopefully increases over time.

 

[Bilal Ahmad15]

The current schedule is horrible, my reasoning is it becomes very very boring to have 7-8 games in a row in the same venues. It leads to over saturation and so less crowd, overall less interest.

Each team, apart from Quetta and Peshawar, has their own safe home venue, so there needs to be a proper schedule where we see multiple venues per matchweek. As for Quetta and Peshawar, assuming Arbab Niaz and Bugti Stadiums are respectively not completed and not safe, then best option is to give National Bank Arena as Home venue for Quetta, and Multan or Pindi stadium as home venue for Peshawar. Simple.

First of all, people complain that there is too much travel cost, blah blah blah. Well guess what? If you want to make your product (PSL) thrive then these types of travel costs sacrifices must be made. Otherwise honestly, there is no point of hosting the PSL.

And then people say "But Quetta and Peshawar are not actually having their own home venue with my idea". Yes I am aware of this, but its far better than the current schedule taking place, seriously

 

[Major]

I agree with the OP. PSL is yet to develop into a proper league with home and away games.

I guess they hold it this way as it makes it easier to provide security to the teams. But yet, the tournament needs to be held simultaneously in all four grounds.

In Pindi/Islamabad we have more grounds, so Peshawar can move its home team there. There is a good number of pathan population that live here.

Quetta can establish itself in Karachi or eve Hyderabad

 

[Savak]

Karachi desperately needs the Bahria Town Stadium to be up and running. I believe there are three other stadiums as well ie Nazimabad Stadium, Defence Stadium, Moin Khan academy. Why not alternate and hold some psl games there so that there is less stress in the national stadium and the quality of the wickets is preserved. Granted these stadiums don't have huge seating capacities but atleast you will get huge crowds vs seeing empty stands at national stadium.

 

[aqeelPK]

Traveling cost is not an issue. It would roughly be 10-15% of the gate money income even if teams & staffs would have to travel for every match (assuming 2k avg price per ticket & 100k for air ticket) . The real issue is the time. Currently, PSL has only 2 broadcasting teams. Shifting and installing their equipments between venues require time, at least 2 days. If PSL is to hold proper home/away schedule then they will have to add more off days (5 or 6), extending schedule further by minimum 1 more week pushing beyond available dedicated league window.
PCB has already announced their plan to add 2 more venues (quetta, peshawar) in 9th edition. This will decrease the burden on venues (5 matches in each instead of 8-10). Lets hope they will also add additional broadcasting team as well.

 

[Cric_lover4487]

My bigger issue is not having a fixed time slot for matches. I fixed a time to watch only to found out match is already over that day. PSL takes its audience for granted. For a neutral cricket fan such things **** you off and only die hard Pakistan cricket fans will follow PSL.

 

[Babeikh]

To be honest, there is no ONE way to do this.

Until Peshawar and Quetta get their own home grounds, we don't have much of a choice.

This is the key issue.

We can have a proper home / away system for Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan but Quetta and Peshawar have to play their home games somewhere else. Should maybe give one of them Karachi and one of them Pindi to spread it out a bit more.

 

[JibranAnsari]

IMO these things can only be implemented if things are normal as they are in india. The security situation in pakistan is lately not good and i believe they want to keep the travel as minimal as possible. Logistics costs too are a concern in pakistan. PSL is a much much smaller league than IPL and we should feel lucky that we have a tournament at all in pakistan.

 

[Rana]

So tomorrow Multan and Karachi would have played 5 whilst Islamabad united have only played 2

Really poor scheduling