PCB, PSL franchises to settle financial matters out of court

LAHORE: The PCB and six PSL franchises have agreed to settle their issues related to the league’s financial model out of court.

The legal suit has thus been disposed of by the Lahore High Court. Both parties will meet on October 7 in Lahore to find a resolution.

Last week, the six franchises had filed a petition to force the PCB to change the financial model, a long-running demand from the franchises. Their central grievance is that the PSL has apparently made the PCB richer while the franchises have run losses every season. They wanted the court to direct the PCB to “formally redress the grievances of all franchises” and “revise the model of PSL in accordance with its statutory mandate and make it financially viable”.

The PCB had been offering to rework the model and had several meetings over the years on the matter with various suggestions put forward, but little definitive action resulted from those discussions. The lawyers for the franchises argued in the court that “the existing structure and arrangement are inherently inequitable and the said inequity of the model needs to be removed”.

It was further argued by the franchises that, in the wake of Covid-19, discussions around restructuring the model had been deferred further by the board.

Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi, who was hearing the petition, asked PCB lawyer Tafazzul Rizvi why “they do not sit with the PSL owners and address their genuine grievances”. The court adjourned the case following PCB representative Salman Naseer stating the board was prepared to invite the PSL owners on October 7 to begin the process of redressing their grievances.