There’s so much to write home about with the inaugural Pakistan Super League it hardly matters that this piece will not have an icing on the cake because of deadline constraints -- that bane of pun-pushers, or shall we say, key-punchers in true T20 style!

Never mind. There will be time for a walloping critique in true sporting fashion. Abdul Qadir, the Ghulam Ali of leg spin in the ghazal sense, for one, did raise a number of multilayered questions recently surrounding the end product -- especially the poser about how many local batsmen of decent capability can the slam bang PSL circus throw up? -- but let’s not read the riot act for the sake of one, and just yet.

We just had a baby, and while it may have seemed like a Caesarian section to the wounded few (no dearth of disgruntled gents at the hands of the mean PCB), there’s definitely so much more worth shouting about. More so, in the absence of cheerleaders in the desert.

The colourful scheme of things that the PSL has turned out to be makes it a touch difficult not to be swayed by feel good emotion, even tremulous pride. After all, Pakistan cricket has looked barren for so long that even the Thar Desert has seemed a little less parched at the worst of times. As an avid follower of the game with a bit of insight and some reach into how it is run at least across the South Asian region for more than three decades, one is willing to wager that the PSL is probably, the best thing to have happened to Pakistan cricket since the 1992 epoch-making milestone. The Waterford crystal trophy itself, of course, was not the benchmark but a culmination of Imran Khan’s decade-old leadership that gave Pakistan cricket a sense of direction and, more importantly, self-belief.

After the unfortunate attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in 2009, we were left bruised in spirit and continent-hopping with no place to call home. PSL will have done much to revive Pakistan cricket’s fortunes even though it is some distance from its avowed mission of bringing the troops, and paraphernalia home. But it’s a start, and a terrific one at that.

This space is too little to encapsulate what has happened in the past fortnight and a half. While the action has been breathtaking on the field, no less endearing has it been off it either.

From that colossus of the post-War pantheon, Sir Vivian Richards, jumping like an Olympian hurdler to celebrate Quetta Glads’ sensational chase down of a 200 plus score (I’m told it has happened only once in 8 editions of IPL) after an Afghan ‘terror’ (the affable Mohammad Nabi) scripted perhaps, the greatest T20 last over assault to Mohammad Amir’s eyeball grabbing hat-trick and the fervent Calypso appeal of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and that irrepressibly, lovable character Darren Sammy to the who’s who of Pakistan cricket pitted against each other (Ahmed Shehzad vs Wahab Riaz, Misbah vs Afridi…you get the drift) in what had only seemed like a figment of imagination until now, there it was!

Off the park, if Kevin Pieterson was playing with Umar Gul’s little darling sitting pretty on his lap, Afridi’s daughters were winning hearts on the telly -- with a rare glimpse of Mrs Boom Boom in the stands. If rival keepers Sarfaraz Ahmed and Kamran Akmal -- remember who replaced whom and how -- were both happy in a single frame with Moin Khan as if calling Ripley’s attention,  Zainab Abbas, the fetching super bilingual new face of Pakistan cricket speak, was amply providing the kind of soft image this country has craved for donkeys years.

So what’s the take home then, for now (a record 55% of Pakistan’s population was glued to the idiot box for a Karachi vs Lahore round robin rendezvous, according to one estimate)?

The best thing PSL has done is to have returned the smile to Pakistan cricket. There’s an unmistakable newfound confidence that says ‘we may have been denied our due -- think IPL -- but we’re here, we have the smarts and we matter’. With the foreign imports no less impressed with the fare, our leaguers may even be entitled to chide: Take that!

This brings me to the next best thing that has happened: bonding. Not only has a neat spread of national team players worn different jerseys for the city franchises but have been afforded a unique gelling experience with some of the world’s best players in the format and an array of topnotch coaches on the international circuit.

The same bonding may bode well on another level, too. It will have hopefully, worked some space in the minds of the hitherto reluctant international stars about playing in Pakistan, sometime in the future. While there’s no disputing the colour of money, don’t be surprised if the cheese will move enough for some of them to take a punt a couple of editions down the road.

For now, the fare is restricted to little more than a television sport for cricket-starved Pakistanis at home. But make no mistake, it will have done enough to fire the imagination of the young. Quick fame, rolling greenback, and reasonably short route to the national colours is bound to lure their lot. Simple math actually!

Expect the competition to hot up even further from the next edition when franchises will have wisened to the right mix. The nature of the sport -- and platform -- is such that aspiring players and even those like Saeed Ajmal trying to make a comeback will be forced to think on their feet, and often out-of-the-box. The new verve is already evident with the likes of Mohammad Nawaz and Ruman Raees making such an unbelievably quick impact as to find a place in the Asia and World T20 squads in less than a week of the PSL getting off ground!

We may be in the middle of a mini revolution here. A little peace, and the possibilities will be endless. Say touchwood!