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Javed Miandad rubbishes Pakistan Cricket Board’s plans of hosting PSL in Dubai

He said hosting PSL outside will not help bring back international cricket to Pakistan.

Javed Miandad said hosting PSL outside will not help bring back international cricket to Pakistan © Getty Images
Javed Miandad said hosting PSL outside will not help bring back international cricket to Pakistan © Getty Images

 

Karachi: Jul 3, 2014

 

Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad has rubbished the plans of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to hold its inaugural Pakistan Super League (PSL) T20 tournament early next year in Dubai.

 

“Unless the Pakistan Super League is held in Pakistan it will serve no purpose and it will not help bring back international cricket or foreign players to Pakistan,” Miandad said on Friday.

 

His comments came a day after the chairman of the board, Najam Sethi had said that if Pakistan was to get back international cricket the board had to start the premier league T20 event even if required at a neutral venue.

 

Sethi said that due to the security situation in Pakistan the inaugural premier league would be held in Dubai before the ICC World Cup 2015 in a bid to attract foreign players. But Miandad a veteran of 124 Tests and until recently a top official in the PCB disagreed.

 

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“It should be launched in Pakistan even on a small scale because we have to be patient but sooner or later it will attract a lot of foreign players even I Pakistan,” he added.

 

Miandad who resigned from the board during Sethi’s tenure few months back said he didn’t agree with the plan to have it in Dubai.

 

“It will serve no purpose because foreign players will no longer have any compulsion to come to Pakistan once it is held abroad,” he noted.

 

He said the PCB needed to do more and be convinced itself that it was possible to stage international matches in Pakistan.

 

“When we have our own league in Dubai the message we are sending outside is we ourselves are not convinced so how can we convince foreign players,” he said.

 

Sethi told reporters on Thursday that millions of rupees had been spent on setting up the league secretariat in Lahore but for no reason the scheme was put aside by former chairman, Zaka Ashraf causing losses to the board.

 

“A lot of money was spent on preparing for the super league and then all of a sudden it was put back but we are trying to revive it as soon as possible and have already done a lot of homework on it. Very soon we plan to float tenders for managing the premier league,” he said.

 

[inline-quotes align=”left”]When we have our own league in Dubai the message we are sending outside is we ourselves are not convinced so how can we convince foreign players[/inline-quotes]

A source in the cricket board said that already some Pakistani organizations and companies had shown great interest in fielding their franchise in the premier league.

 

“The price being asked from them is around 200 million rupees for rights to have a team. They have also been told that the board will ensure they get a share of revenues from the league and that the board will arrange for foreign and local players for the auction and base price for them is being decided,” he stated.

 

But Miandad who was director-general in the board said the board can rely on its players for the league.

 

“We can put our domestic players together with the national team players in the PSL which will boost the [domestic] players’ morale and self-belief to tackle opponents of higher standard,” he stated.

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