After the IPL, now PCB to go for PPL !!!
Encouraged by the success of the Indian Premier League, the Pakistan Cricket Board have stepped up efforts to launch their own lucrative Twenty20 tournament.
The proposed Pakistan Premier League (PPL), based on a similar format to that of the IPL, was discussed during the meeting of the PCB’s governing body on Tuesday with members believing it would boost domestic cricket in the country.
PCB chairman Nasim Ashraf said the idea has already received interest from the business community, saying in the Dawn newspaper: “We will be waiting for a suitable time to start the tournament as many corporate institutions here have also shown their willingness to sponsor the event.”
He also made it clear that present future tours programme of the International Cricket Council did not provide any room for scheduling the tournament during the current tenure.
The proposed PPL would have 13 teams based on the number of regions in the domestic set up and each side will be allowed two foreign players, Nasim said.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board has said it has got a tremendous response to buy franchise rights for teams in the planned Pakistan Premier League Twenty20 competition.
A senior official of the Board said on Wednesday that the only thing holding up the organisation of the Pakistan edition of the successful Indian Premier League was finding a slot in the packed Future Tours Programme of the ICC.
“The response from companies and organisations and even individuals to buy franchise rights or sponsor teams in the PPL have been beyond our expectations,” the official said.
“Obviously, the IPL is on a much bigger scale as India has a big commercial and marketing market. But we think the PPL can also be done successfully.”
Reacting to this news, New international cricket chief Haroon Lorgat warned against T20 overkill. He said on Wednesday that it was important that the expanding Twenty20 format did not begin to dominate the Test and 50-over game.
South African Lorgat, who will become the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) chief executive in July, said test cricket must remain the leading format in the sport.
“I sat in on the ICC cricket committee meeting this month and they were very clear that Test cricket should remain the pinnacle of the game and I agree,” Lorgat told Reuters in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Twenty20, which began in England in 2003, is making rapid progress as the game’s most popular format and since the inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup in September, a slew of Twenty20 events have surfaced.
The unofficial Indian Cricket League began, the officially-backed Indian Premier League started last month and there is talk of England, and West Indies to follow Pakistan in expanding their own domestic Twenty20 competitions to exploit the wave of international popularity in the event.
“It’s a form of the game we can use as a wonderful opportunity to grow cricket globally, though we will have to manage the load that Twenty20 takes on against Test and 50-over cricket,” Lorgat said.
Leave a Reply