[MENTION=131701]Mamoon[/MENTION]
Oh God, I love decoding the non-sense you serve up when it comes to insulting Pakistan cricket out of pure hate rather than rational thinking.
1. "Pakistan cricket is not the brand it was 15-20 years ago. We have very little bargaining power"
What brand are you talking about mate? When we had Wasim, Waqar, Afridi, Anwar, Inzimam, Yousuf, Saqlain etc. These are guys who built a name for themselves and Pakistan by playing regularly at home and dominating so many other weaker sides such as India, New Zealand and all the rest. The issue is that those weaker sides have overtaken Pakistan and they are mediocre currently but they are still a better side than quite a few others. Even Australian cricket is no longer a brand the way it was 10 years ago. Transition and changes are the name of the game. Yesterday it was the West Indies, a decade later it was Australia and a couple of decades later it is India. Who knows who could be the 'brand' tomorrow? To say that only brands have bargaining power is an absolute lie. what does have bargaining power is the Almighty dollar and whoever has it. If Afghanistan cricket board have a budget of £10m to host a premier tournament and they decide to use £8m to hire Virat Kohli to play in the tournament from that budget, thats all that will matter at the end of the day.
2. "Pakistan’s standing in world cricket can be summed up by the fact that in spite of almost no international cricket in Pakistan for 10 years, the game has not been affected".
Right, so thats why the world of cricket is crying/worrying about the future of the sport itself? Test cricket is a dying art in countries such as England. I know, have seen first hand how the ECB is laying so much emphasis on providing cricket to any child no matter what financial background they are from to be introduced to the sport. Australian cricket has been on a downslide since the legends retired and now this Sandpaper scandal has brought them to an all time low. How much cricket will New Zealand produce with a population of 4M?? To think that one of the biggest markets for cricket is yet to be tapped into is shocking just because that country is terror stricken but is working very hard to restore cricket at home. You say it like if there was no Pakistan in the world of cricket, the sport will still go on. It will, but it will not expand, its not expanding and you have no statistic to prove otherwise.
3." Pakistan’s status as an outcast can be further gauged by the fact that the IPL has become the biggest league in the game with 0 Pakistani players. In fact, the IPL brand is bigger than Pakistan cricket itself."
The English Premier league is a bigger brand than Real Madrid and Barcelona. Going by your logic, the IPL is a bigger brand than most countries, if not all of them. BCCI will not be able to sustain its expensive domestic and international wage bill without IPL money. IPL is a bigger brand than Australian, English and South African cricket? Why are you singling out Pakistan only? PSL is probably a bigger brand than the PCB and most boards also. I would rather have the owners of PSL franchises running the PCB with their financial and business resources. What a pathetic argument!
4. "As long as Pakistan has the reputation of a terror-stricken country and the PSL is scheduled just before the IPL, the PSL will be a last resort for the elite, active players."
I don't disagree with this, but what you fail to overlook is the fact that cricket is not the reason for Terror and poor international relations, yet cricket has to become a casualty of war in this instance. Do you think the PCB and cricket lovers in Pakistan are not trying their best to prove that this is a country where 99% of the population are respectful, loving human beings who love the game of cricket?
5. "If this is a “cool story” for you, perhaps you can better explain why de Villiers and Warner did not participate in PSL 1, 2 and 3."
Its a fresh new league. AB played cricket for SA during this period and played IPL the following month, he was clearly unavailable. He also must have had doubts about Pakistan's security arrangements hence didnt tour with the World XI boys out of which 5-6 gun SA players were a part of (Miller, Du Plesis, Amla, Tahir, Duminy, Morkel) This perception must have changed after his mates have told him that you are pretty much protected from the moment you set foot on the flight to Pakistan.
As for Warner, same issue when it came to International duty, but he has gone on to prove that it really doesn't matter what situation Pakistan finds itself in. He is from an old school of Aussies that would not tour Pakistan even if it were the 90s or early 2000s.
. I watch IPL just to watch some youngsters. But just because Tests and ODI s came first, why can't they like T20s? It was the same for ODIs in the 70s.
