The Pakistan Cricket Board was keen on attracting investment from the Indian market for its planned Twenty20 league but it would not be “an exact model” of the IPL, its chief Zaka Ashraf said.
Asked if the PCB’s proposed league would be a copy of the highly successful Indian Premier League, Ashraf said, “This is a wrong impression. We are working on delivering a innovative and exciting PPL but it would not be on the exact model of the IPL.”
Ashraf said that Indian broadcasting company Nimbus was one of the several companies who are interested in becoming a part of Pakistan’s Twenty20 league.
“Nimbus made a presentation regarding the league earlier this month. There are a few other companies in the picture as well,” he said.
Meanwhile, two more companies — Ten Sports and one based in United Kingdom — made presentations to the Board on the league proposed to start this year.
Reports said of the two presentations, the Board officials were not very impressed with the one by the UK based company.
“We have had several presentations and many people are promising to deliver a lot but we have to ensure the model we follow is viable for us financially and secondly it allows us to tap the international market,” one PCB official who declined to be named said.
Ashraf made it clear that while the Board wanted the participation of foreign players in its Twenty20 league, the franchises would have to purchase them under a set financial model.
He also said that the planned Twenty20 league may not be named the Pakistan Premier League.
“We are not going to call it Pakistan Premier League as some people have been suggesting for quite some time now. We are still in the process of finalising a name that is good enough for what we hope will be an innovative and exciting league,” he said.
Bangladesh yet to confirm Pakistan tour
Meanwhile, the PCB is waiting for an official response from their Bangladeshi counterparts on its request to try and vacate the stay order of the Dhaka High Court which has prevented the Bangladesh team from touring Pakistan this month.
Reports quoting sources in the PCB said the Board was still waiting for a response from the BCB on the last letter sent to them, urging them to file an appeal to the stay order.
“We really don’t know what is happening because in our last letter we had made it clear that we feel that the stay order given by the Dhaka High Court against Bangladesh touring Pakistan can be vacated,” one PCB source said.
He said the PCB had requested the BCB to keep it updated and share details of any appeal it filed against the writ petition in the Dhaka High Court.
But the BCB has not made any contact with the PCB on the issue and it appeared as if the Bangladesh team’s tour was now a thing of the past, the source said.
The Bangladesh team’s scheduled tour of Pakistan later this month was postponed last week after some citizens and former players filed a writ petition in the Dhaka High Court insisting it was not safe for the Bangladesh team to tour Pakistan.
The PCB in a press release had said that its legal advisors had studied the writ petition filed in the Dhaka High Court and believed prima facie the writ petition was devoid of merit and has been filed against public interest which will be detrimental to the game of cricket.
