Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that Doha, the capital city of the State of Qatar, will host the inaugural edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) from February 04-24 next year. After days of suspense, PCB finally decided to go ahead with Qatar after failing to book venues in the UAE during those dates.
While admitting that Qatar, hosts of Football World Cup 2022, is a relatively unknown cricket centre, chairman of the PCB's executive committee Najam Sethi said the board is confident that the Qatar Olympic body and the country's national cricket association will offer their full cooperation and that top facilities would be provided for the League.
"We had the option of delaying the launch of the PSL till April and have it in Dubai or other UAE venues, but the window did not suit us at all due to unavailability of players," Sethi, who is heading the PSL secretariat, told a media conference in Lahore. PCB had twice postponed the launch of its T20 league because of various reasons, but Sethi said everything was on schedule this time with broadcasters, production companies, event managers and sponsors all lined up.''
Sethi said the first edition of the PSL will feature five teams from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar, who will be sold as franchises, but the number of teams could be increased later. He also informed that, as of now, five teams are scheduled to play 24 matches next year. "The response we have got for the five franchises is overwhelming and more than our expectations," Sethi insisted. The Twenty20 League will have a collective prize purse of up to USD one million. The bidding process for selling team franchises as well as the player auction is set to take place in September. "The players auction would be held in Pakistan and the official logo of the PSL would be unveiled next month," Sethi said.
"Top foreign players from all Test playing nations except India have expressed interest in signing up for the PSL. As of now, the PSL has consent from over 40 international players," Sethi said, adding that even top foreign coaches are being roped in for the first edition of the League.
There are around 90,000 people from Pakistan living in Qatar, a number which is expected to rise in the near future with the influx of more workers needed for the huge number of infrastructure projects taking place in the Gulf state. In addition, there are large numbers of people from other strong Asian cricketing nations including more than half a million residents from India, 150,000 from Bangladesh and 100,000 from Sri Lanka.
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