A League that makes the entire Pakistan feel Super
By Maaz Nawaz
At about 8 pm our time, the entire country would be divided between Quetta and Peshawar fans. That fact would have no bearing from the possibility that one may not be a cricket fan at all. That division is inevitable. But what would still be a unifying factor is that big time cricket has come to Pakistan with some international cricketers in hot pursuit. The foreigners may not be that hot themselves—a lot of them have opted to stay away from the threats feared by the likes of Imran Khan—but our very own Pakistan Super League is the hottest single event in the cricketing world for all us Pakistanis, their love or otherwise for cricket notwithstanding. After all, cricket remains the biggest trend for our youth, today.
And the most popular forms these days are the T20 Leagues, like IPL, BBL and of course PSL which is short, easy to watch, cleverly unpredictable and thus vastly entertaining. With big sixes, sensational catches, brilliant fielding and great bowling, these games serve a wholesome cricket.
These leagues are currently the most engaging way to find cricket based talent have also proven themselves a sure fire way at minting immense profit. The cricket craze in South Asia has almost reached the madness football enjoys in Europe. Nations against each have lost their charm before these leagues where both a range of domestic and international players take it up and put forth some excellent cricket for its viewers.
Pakistan Super League sports five teams, named after its cities like Karachi Kings, Lahore Qalandars, Quetta Gladiators, Peshawar Zalmi, and Islamabad United. It has a host of international players from 11 different countries participating this year. Although Pakistanis have previously constituted the majority of the players in domestic T20 competitions, PSL has a higher percentage of international players. The league uses a draft system for player recruitment similar to that used in many North American professional sports leagues as opposed to the auction system used in some other T20 leagues.
PSL plays in a double round-robin format. Every team played each other twice and the top four advanced to the playoffs. Four matches plays in playoffs Qualifier, 1st Eliminator, 2nd Eliminator and Final. Top two teams in point table plays in Qualifier and the 3rd and 4th plays in 1st eliminator. 2nd eliminator is play between the loser of qualifier and the winner of 1st eliminator and the winner of Qualifier and 2nd eliminator plays in final.
First season of PSL was held in UAE in February 2016 due to security issues in Pakistan and was very successful at getting many viewers from over the world interested in it and for also yielding 2.6 Million USD.
Now close to its final, Najam Sethi announced that the league hoped to hold the 2017 final in Lahore, Pakistan which was soon followed by the agreement of Punjab Government. He claimed that the league had signed foreign players with the condition that if their team reached the final that they would have to travel to Lahore, although this claim was rebutted by agents whose clients had agreed that they would only travel to play the final in Pakistan if the security advice prior to the final was favorable and who could not be forced to travel. An official of a PSL team said that security would need to be "extremely high" and that "cash incentives" had been offered to foreign players to agree to travel to Lahore, although no action would be taken against any player who refused to do so. In August 2016 Sethi had stated that if players were not willing to travel, the teams would be able to pick from a pool of foreign players from other teams who had agreed to do so and that the PCB could organize "foolproof security" for the event.
This year’s PSL however turned sour quick when two players from Islamabad United, Sharjeel khan and Khalid Latif, were found involved in match fixing. Sharjeel khan is a player of Pakistan’s International Cricket team and is one of the best openers. PCB took action against the players despite their huge fan followings and banned both the players from PSL.
But other than that, people were back to root for their favorite teams and enjoy from the spirited matches put forth by the players. With Pakistanis taking city-war banter to a whole new level, even the foreigners are enjoying the tournament in full swing. Two internationally acclaimed former cricketers who are part of PSL’s commentary team make the tournament even more exciting. Former English county cricketer Alan Wilkins and New Zealand out swinger Danny Morrison’s presence in PSL shows how much they are enjoying this league. PSL 2017 is the first league who allowed Decision Review System (DRS) in T20 games. Pepsi catch a crore is also an interesting way to engage the standee crowd.
Buzzing with anticipation for the final between Quetta Gladiators and the Peshawar Zalmis, we are sharing the best moments of PSL 2017 in this video.
