‘PSL teams should break even by second year’

Abu Dhabi: Najam Sethi, chairman of the governing council of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), is confident that he and his team can pull off the tournament successfully and also sustain it in the long run.

In an exclusive interview with Gulf News, Sethi said that the tournament had weathered all the apprehensions and was very much on track. “There were a lot of challenges and one of the main things was that the board didn’t have the expertise. We had two options, either to do it on our own or outsource the entire thing to someone else. We hired Repucom, who said we can do it on our own and outsource a few things,” said Sethi, whose tournament plans almost fell apart for unavailability of grounds in the UAE.

“When we approached Emirates Cricket Board, we learnt that the venues were booked for the Masters Cricket League and we had to approach Qatar, who were asking for a long-term commitment from us. They were even ready to give us a new stadium next year if we were ready to move everything away from the UAE,” revealed Sethi, who added that the negotiations took a lot of time and they had to fall back on the UAE.

“We lost around two months and we came back to Dubai and worked things out. The solution was to bring forward Master Cricket League (MCL) by a week in Dubai and then move it to Abu Dhabi. So we start on February 4 and move to Sharjah, so MCL can come back and do their last three matches in Dubai.”

PCB has financial constraints but Sethi was upbeat that the board can generate some revenue from the new tournament. “Our assessment is that everybody will make money – broadcasters, sponsors as well as PCB. For franchises, it is a medium to long-term investment project. They may not make any money in the first year but they surely will break even in the second and start making money from the third and fourth year,” asserted Sethi.

The PCB has a record of being an unstable entity so to make sure that PSL continues, there has to be a stable administration but that’s the least of the worries for Sethi. As per him, the constitutional amendments have put PCB in the same platform as any other cricketing federation and political clout won’t work anymore.

“Yes, in the past the constitution of the cricket board was such that add-on changes could be made by the patron and the constitution was tailor-made for politics. What has now happened is that we have a democratic constitution. The new constitution is more stable and also has the approval of the Supreme Court,” said Sethi.

He was also hoping that the Indian board will also, at some point, give Indian players the go-ahead to participate in PSL. “I certainly would like the BCCI to give us a green signal.I would like to approach the BCCI and say look, we would like to have access to your players for PSL and we would like to give Pakistan players for the IPL. Definitely, we want to propose a reciprocal arrangement to them but yes at the right time.”