‘Three PSL franchises agree to back their regions’

LAHORE: Three of five franchises of the Pakistan Super League have shown their intent to support the regional teams of their cities in domestic cricket.

This was revealed by chairman Pakistan Cricket Board Executive Committee Najam Sethi here.

Sethi further said that negotiations were underway with the other two franchises in this respect.

“All the five franchises were asked to buy their regional teams for domestic cricket and three of them agreed to sponsor their regional teams,” said Sethi.

He said that Lahore Qalandars would be the sponsors for Lahore Region and documents were being prepared for the agreement. Islamabad Region would be backed by Islamabad United, and Quetta Gladiators would sponsor Quetta Region, he added.

“We are in talks with Peshawar Zalmi and Karachi Kings to buy Peshawar and Karachi regions,” he said and added that he was hopeful that they would agree to own these regions.

He revealed that the PCB had been giving the regions 20 to 25 million rupees and with sponsors coming in this would rise to 50 million rupees, which would surely benefit these regions’ cricket. “The franchise would also know that by supporting that particular city it will lure in the support of fans of that area for their teams in the PSL,” he pointed out.

Sethi further said that the main purpose of this was to involve the corporate sector in cricket so that they worked along with the elected regional cricket officials.

He rejected the impression that some of the franchises had failed to give PSL guarantee money to the PCB. “It was rather the franchises’ extravagant expenses that were of concern. The PCB kept a tight leash on expenses,” he claimed.

He said that the PCB instead compensated these franchises from the profits it earned from the PSL to ease their deficit.

Defending his views of paying extra to players for playing the second PSL final in Lahore, he said that there should not be any issue because no player was willing to play in Pakistan but with efforts Zimbabwe agreed to visit Pakistan and now after the success of PSL opening edition things are changing and some of the cricketers are inquiring about the raise in money if the final is played in Pakistan.