PCB plays down issue of low spectator turnout at PSL

KARACHI: Amid growing criticism over thin crowds in HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) season 5, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has insisted that the T20 league has been attracting hordes of fans in its first leg.

In a media release issued by the PCB on Monday, the Board “thanked the Karachi and Lahore fans for embracing the first-ever complete HBL Pakistan Super League in Pakistan by almost filing the National and Gaddafi stadia, respectively for each of the opening seven matches of the 34-match 32-day tournament.”

“The PCB is overwhelmed with the excellent spectator response and turnaround at the two venues for the first seven matches. When the hosting of the complete HBL PSL 2020 was announced 12 months ago, this is exactly what the PCB had envisaged and the PCB is grateful to all the spectators for supporting its vision and endeavour,” it said.

However, despite PCB’s claims, it’s obvious that the fans have not embraced the PSL as per expectations. Some of the matches in Karachi and Lahore were held in front of many empty seats. A variety of reasons including poor scheduling of matches (most of the matches in Karachi were held during daytime) and strict security measures are seen as some of reasons behind less than satisfactory attendance of spectators at the PSL venues.

PCB is now hoping that forthcoming matches in Multan and Rawalpindi – two new venues – will attract bigger crowds.

“The action now moves to the two new homes of HBL PSL – Multan Cricket Stadium and Pindi Cricket Stadium – the venues on which the PCB has invested millions in infrastructure upgradation so that they are ready to international and domestic matches. It will not be out of context to mention here that Pindi Cricket Stadium staged two of the three Tests this season as normal cricket service returned to Pakistan last year in December,” ie said.

“The PCB is encouraged with the response of ticket sales in Rawalpindi and Multan, and expects the two stadia to be filled to their capacities in the 11 matches shared between these two new venues of HBL PSL.”

The Board also defended the error-filled opening ceremony of the PSL in Karachi last Thursday.

“Hosting of any opening ceremony presents its own challenges. While a number of Pakistan cricket fans have been vocal in their disapproval about elements of the ceremony, a sizeable number of followers were pleased with the display. Being an evolving organisation, the PCB is keen to learn from these experiences to further improve the quality of events in the future,” it said.

PCB also denied that it depended on Indian nationals to conduct the much-criticised opening ceremony.

“As far as the nationalities of the personnel involved in the production of the matches, the PCB wishes to clarify there is a diverse group of people who are ensuring images of our event, culture and passion is distributed across the globe. Most of these personnel have been regular visitors to Pakistan since 2015, albeit different production company,” it said.

“It must be remembered modern day high-tech broadcast technologies are neither locally available, nor are the personnel trained to operate these technologies. A goal identified at the outset by both PCB and our consortium partners of Tower Sports and SportzWorkz, was to start the process of developing local talent so that the country becomes self-reliant.”