LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar M Khan has claimed that the decision to hold the first edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) at an off-shore venue will benefit the Board in both cricketing and financial aspects.

Shaharyar, replying to a question at a press conference here on Monday after resuming office from a 40-day long annual vacation, said: “The decision on PSL was taken after thorough consideration. The UAE was short-listed as the first off-shore venue while Doha, Qatar as the second option and both were selected since the PCB stands to benefit not just for the cricketing reasons but also financially.”

Shaharyar also disclosed that many foreign teams including Scotland, Ireland and other international teams could visit Pakistan to open the doors of international cricket here once again.

However, when asked as to what kind of message would be conveyed to those teams if the PCB will hold the PSL on off-shore venues, he said: “If the PCB organises the PSL in Pakistan, none of the big names in cricket nor any top broadcasters will come here. At the off-shore venues, however, the PCB expects a good response from the cricketers as well as the broadcasters. Therefore, a decision to this effect has been taken.”

Meanwhile, Shaharyar said the Indian cricket board (BCCI) was yet to confirm the proposed bilateral series against Pakistan scheduled to be held in the UAE in December. He said though a few issues were yet to be resolved in this regard, all put forth by BCCI, hopefully the two countries would be able to resume the bilateral series this year.

Elaborating on the issues, the chairman said while the BCCI was still awaiting a green signal from its government, the second issue was related to broadcasters.

“The issue of broadcasters will hopefully be resolved in the next few days as the dispute between the BCCI and our broadcaster is likely to be resolved soon. The BCCI has to confirm its participation in the series to the PCB till the end of this August. And if the BCCI fails to confirm it then the PCB will go for plan B or C. But at the moment I am not in a position to divulge any more details in this regard,” he said.

He added that Giles Clarke, the head of ICC Task Force on Pakistan, has informed him that he is working on bringing an international team to Pakistan as an attempt to revive international cricket here. In this regard, Shaharyar said, the PCB had proposed upcoming month of April or September (2016). Giles, he added, had showed consent for September, 2016’s tour of an international team to Pakistan.

To a question regarding a recent interview of Pakistan batsman Younis Khan where he said that he quite regrets stepping down as captain in 2010, Shaharyar said he has all the respect for Younis because he is an honest and hardworking player and gentleman. “Younis has served Pakistan cricket tremendously. Besides his batting feats, at 38 years of age he is still the fittest player in the team and the PCB has told him that until he is fit and in form, he could play on for Pakistan.”

To a question, Shaharyar said he was also surprised when vice-captain Sarfraz Ahmad was dropped from the recent T20 series against Sri Lanka. “But I want to assure all that the main reason for dropping Sarfraz was purely a cricketing one and the move was not politically motivated,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2015

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