Dubai: Najam Sethi, the chairman of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) has termed the success of the PSL’s first edition as the victory of Pakistan and its fans.
“My team worked really hard with support from the people. There was no situation I had to point out to someone that he did not perform his duty. It has been a fantastic team effort. This is not a success of one person, but of the fans. It is the success of my team, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and in general the whole of Pakistan. We have shown to the world what we can do and how successful we can be. We put in all our hard work and sincerity,” said Sethi, who was faced with difficulties having to stage the event outside his country in neutral venue like UAE.
“We faced a number of hurdles. We don’t want to look back — instead we would like to focus on the future. Surely there would have been some mistakes here and there so we will study them carefully and to make it better next time,” he added.
“Our first mission was to kick off the tournament and make it a success and our next objective will be to slowly but surely take the tournament to Pakistan. This tournament belongs to Pakistan and its people and it should be held in Pakistan. We will work hard towards it and work has already started on that front. This tournament was a success because there were no major or minor mishaps during this period and everything worked according to our plan,” said Sethi, who believes the values of the franchises have doubled since the start of the tournament and that PCB will incur no financial losses this year.
When asked whether there are plans to include Indian players in the league next year, Sethi said: “India does not let their players play in any outside leagues. It is a known fact that they don’t allow them to play in the Big Bash and others and so I am not sure when Pakistan’s turn will come. It is their complete monopoly. I hope the Indian government permits the Indian players play against Pakistan.”
Sethi then went on say that efforts have begun to stage an India-Pakistan series in September. “We expect some good news in September and if does not happen, it doesn’t. India owes us two home series. They have to play us before we go and play them and this is PCB governing board’s decision. We hope India will play. When relationship between India and Pakistan improves politically, there will also be cricket between India and Pakistan. Firstly they have play our home series, be it Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or UAE, but not in India and so the entire revenue will be ours.”
Sethi revealed that he even tried to bring foreign players to play in Pakistan for the PSL by offering them money. “We had decided to give any amount of money for them to come and play in Pakistan, but to tell you the truth not one foreign player accepted this proposal. We had offered up to 300,000 dollars and we needed only around 25 foreign players, but we could not manage to get them. I cannot blame anyone for this situation, but it is purely our unfortunate circumstances. We are trying to redeem the situation and our government and soldiers are giving their best. The situation is much better than it was before and we may be able to host at least some PSL matches in Pakistan next year.”
