Don't think quality and league size is directly linked. To make money PCB needs to cater to a more casual fan base and make people willing to spend money on cricket.
Most of the IPL fans originally were casuals who got attracted through shiny branding and film stars. Over time they have developed a solid fan base who have an understanding of the game.
And if there is high enough stakes and more money coming in then the franchises will be forced to find or develop quality.
PSL branding is a complete failure - it still makes me sad how they have completely flopped the Karachi franchise and doing nothing will just make it decline further.
Imo they need to stick in a Faisalabad franchise and break Karachi into two franchises to make things spicy ( same as Melbourne in Australia).
disagree, yes, the glitz and glamour plays a huge draw in the IPL, but Pakistan is not india, despite player agent driver social media accounts, celebroworship is not as prevalent in Pakistan as it is in india. even in the UK interacting with indians, you can see the palpable offense if you criticise tendu or one of their film or singing greats, whereas pakistanis cuss out every celebrity, sports or otherwise. pakistani celebrity culture is different to india.
also disagree with u on franchises being forced to develop quality, the revenue share means that winning or losing doesn't make a huge difference in the larger context of things, that's why you have perenially underinvested franchises rinsing and repeated the same formulaic approach season on season.
The PSL has to be a quality product, at the core of which is the actual cricket. You cannot get buy-in from the average public if the cricket fans don't even rate the tournament. I agree with you on the corporate side. Branding and management are a joke, but that's a result of the general lack of expertise in the Pakistani corporate sector. Companies in general are pretty unsophisticated by global standards. But I don't see how adding franchises will combat any of these points, but given this is the last season with six teams i guess well find out.
The one sport that has completely reinvented itself and is a case study in branding is F1. It was dying ten years ago, but I realised one of my friends' girlfriends is an F1 fan because of the drive to survive.
I was hoping by now they would have all the top players from around the world but all we got some random T20 journeymen
How easy is to have a successful cricket league in a country where cricket has a monopoly of mind share of 250 million people. And they still struggle to monetize this
They always take the easy way out and just make that small profit and keep the circus running for another year.
it would actually not be difficult at all, you would need consistency, and you would need the PCB to have balls and stand up to the franchises who have too much power. would be interesting to see if any foreign entities come to buy PSL franchises next year. i hope karachi and quetta get new owners.
