Big Reasons to Postponed the PSL T20 League

The planned Pakistan Super League has been postponed, Peter Miller discusses the issue.
The Pakistan Super League Twenty20 tournament has been postponed, presumably indefinitely. We are told the reason for this is that more time is needed to secure all that was needed for the tournament to run smoothly. A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) press release told us that there were concerns over receiving permission from home boards to appear and for those interesting in investing getting their bids together before the tournament was due to begin on 25^th March.
Perhaps more telling than these issues of administration is the admission that there are serious fixture clashes with the dates planned for the tournament. During the lead up to and planned dates for the tournament there is a Test series between England and New Zealand, Pakistan are playing in ODIs in South Africa, the West Indies are hosting Zimbabwe and Australia travel to India. This is without mention the fact that IPL was due to start just days after its conclusion and the English County season would be under way. The question of how English Counties or IPL Franchises feel about their player’s vital preparation time being spent in the Pakistani tournament is writ large.
Of course this is assuming that there is significant interest from bankable stars to attend the PCB’s “extravaganza”. With the international players association, FICA, strongly advising against any overseas players travelling to Pakistan due to fears for their security, it is not known which cricketers would be willing to visit. Publicly a few players have expressed an interest.  South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs announced on Twitter that he was going to continue his T20 globetrotting in Pakistan.

 Former England wicketkeeper and Durham player, Phil Mustard, has also expressed an interest. He told BBC Sport that he felt that over he could use the tournament to make a name for himself, but that he would not be willing to for less than $100,000. While Mustard is a talented cricketer, he is hardly a household name. Whether he would be able to command such a fee for 12 days work is up for debate.
To further ease the security concerns of players and coaches the PCB offered the them an optional $2million life insurance policy with PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf telling ESPNcricinfo that those players from overseas that arrived for the tournament would be “special guests” and afforded every possible security consideration. Quite how offering a life insurance policy would ease concerns of wives and partners is not discussed.

 The fact remains that Pakistan has not hosted a major international cricket event since the horrific terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan national team in March 2009. With all the advice available to players saying that travel to Pakistan is a risk too far it is difficult to imagine that too many big names would be willing to take the risk of even a short stay in the country. While the PCB’s press release announcing the postponement tells us that there are 80 international players already signed up, their identities have not been made public. That list would make fascinating reading.
Cricket being absent from Pakistan is tragic for the millions of fans of the sport in the country. The PCB wanting to carve a slice of the lucrative T20 pie for themselves is completely understandable. Whether these two problems can be solved by the creation of yet another IPL style pop up T20 league is a subject for debate. As we have seen with the continuing issues of player payments at the BPL, tapping into the T20 filthy lucre is not as simple as going about it like Kevin Costner in “Field of Dreams”. If you build it, they may well come, but will you have the dollars to foot the bill?
Even the IPL, the ultimate T20 cash machine, is dogged by allegations of non payment of players and financial irregularities. The continual creation of more and more meaningless leagues will eventually tarnish the T20 product to the point where the public are no longer interested. The question is whether greedy and self interested national boards will figure this out before it is too late.