Cricket stars may skip PSL to play IPL

ISLAMABAD: This year, the Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to hold the Pakistan Super League in April due to the ICC Champions Trophy, at a time when the Indian Premier League will also start in India, which is financially most attractive in the world.

Most of world famous players have signed contracts with the IPL and except for a few big names, they will not be seen in action in the PSL starting from April 7 next year. Even the big names of Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are not available for the PSL due to the attraction of money in India. The most significant difference between the leagues of Pakistan and India is media rights. After the participation of billionaire Indian businessmen, big business houses and Bollywood stars, an Indian broadcaster paid INR 88,000 crore (Rs10.7 billion) for the worldwide broadcasting rights of the IPL from 2022 to 2027. PSL’s media rights also went up, but there was a significant difference between the two due to India’s huge market. The PSL made significant progress and sold its media rights for 2024 and 2025 for $6.3 billion (roughly Rs52,000 crore).

According to Jang’s research, the brand value of PSL is around 88000 crore Pakistani rupees. Pakistan’s hotel, transport, airline industry and other industries got business worth crores of rupees due to the tournament. The Indian Premier League started in 2008. Ten years later, the franchises were given ownership rights, while the custodian of six PSL teams is the PCB. In the revenue sharing model, the PCB reserves the right to sell a franchise if it refuses to continue the agreement after the completion of ten years next year.

Franchise owners claim that after nine years, they still do not get much profit from the PSL because players are paid in dollars, which valued Rs106 when the league started, compared to Rs275 today.

A franchise of the PSL pays nearly 9 crore Pakistani rupees to the PCB annually, while the most expensive player of the league belongs to the platinum category, who is paid around Rs7 billion. Two-time former champions Lahore Qalandars pay a fee of $25 million to the PCB every year. Multan Sultans were sold last, so their annual fee is $63 million.