The need of the hour is to SIGNIFICANTLY increase our investment in the PSL and mitigate our risks!

[msb314]

Let me be clear - this latest fiasco with the BCCI has clearly taught me that we cannot trust any foreign entity to act in the best interests of our cricket. We have to take the necessary steps to protect ourselves and reduce the risks if ANY other party acts in an irrational way.

We have clearly invested a lot of time and money into launching the PSL and it is already our biggest cash cow that is sustaining the PCB. it is already immensely popular with our fans - to the extent that even my wife prefers watching PSL over our national team haha!

From this episode - it has been a massive reality check that we clearly lack the influence and soft power that the BCCI has over the entire cricketing world and we have exposed ourselves to many risks that the BCCI is easily exploiting including petitioning to the ICC to remove us from the WC, persuading other boards to "isolate us" etc.

Back to the PSL - I firmly believe we need to ramp up our investments in the PSL and ensure that we are not financially reliant on any cricket board or governing body. The PSL should be powerful enough to sustain itself and our entire cricketing administration without a second thought. Specifically - here is what I propose:

• Expand the no. of franchises to 10 next year. We should look to target teams specifically for the cities of Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Faisalabad and Hyderabad so that we have covered all the major demographic areas of Pakistan. With the government taking major steps to increase the foreign investment in our country - hopefully we can find loca/foreign entities will to invest in a PSL team.
  
• Increase our marketing channels and marketing spend. We should leverage social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and even sites like Youtube to help advertise for the PSL and let even non-Pakistani cricket fans get invested in the PSL. Of course this will be a significant overhead cost but a necessary investment. Advertise all over the major cities and setup local sporting shops that would sell exclusive PSL merchandise for that cities franchise.
  
• Encourage franchises to establish an U-21 team as well. Investing in youth talent is an extremely important part of any business. The PSL franchises should hire scouts to travel around the cricketing world and encourage talented players to sign up for the U-21 teams. The U-21 teams could play in a smaller league tournament right before the onset of the PSL season and franchises could be encouraged to pick any of these youth players for the senior teams. It will also have establish loyalty from these players towards the franchises that kick-started their careers. if any of our own domestic youth players are chosen for the U-21 squads - they would benefit immensely from playing alongside foreign players and international coaches.
  
• I would also encourage the PSL franchises to start a 50 over tournament at a later point in the calendar year - so that we have two separate calendar windows one for the T20 tournament and one for the 50 over tournament. ODI's tend to be an extension of T20's anyway so most of the players will utilize the same skills anyway. I strongly believe it will be hugely successful in Pakistan as our fans are starved of good quality cricket anyway. The PSL franchises should make a lot of money from 50 over games as well IMO. I LOVE 50 over cricket and would certainly tune in to watch PSL franchises play in this format

All of these steps would be a great starting point but would still not address our lack of financial influence over other cricket boards and even other players. We have to be realistic and understand that the PSL cannot match the player salaries of the IPL - however there are still some things we can do to influence their behavior as discussed below.

• I would advocate that we should establish player pensions and provide them with a small income stream during the off-season. This could be directly tied to the contract category of the player e.g. Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver etc. and must maintain that in order to eligible for this fund - the player must play in the current PSL season and guarantee to be available for the draft of the next season. This will help ensure the PSL remains an attractive proposition for foreign players.
  
• Establish a small fund for other cricket boards that is directly tied to the no. of players from that country participating in the PSL and also tied to the overall profitability of the PSL that year. This might seem absurd to some people as to WHY we are giving free money to other cricket boards but having some leverage over the other cricket boards is key here. This will ensure relations with these cricket boards remain strong and we would be able to use this to our advantage when needed.
  
• PCB has to make a bold step and re-launch the T20 Champions League themselves!! This might be a long shot but has to be in the works right now and we need to start planning for it. DO NOT let the ICC start this tournament but Pakistan has to take the lead here - it is as simple as that This revived T20 Champions League could be as simply as a straight up knockout tournament with 8 teams and hence 7 matches over the course of a few weeks. There would be security concerns of holding it in Pakistan but as our security situation improves with each passing year - this could become a reality very soon! I am confident that will remain a huge success with our cricket starved audience and even the matches with the non-PSL teams will draw large crowds and generate money. Of course none of the IPL teams will be invited

This is a very long post but I wanted to share my ideas - thoughts and suggestions?