LAHORE: The five franchises of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) have succeeded in preventing the entry of a sixth team for the next edition of the league to be staged in 2017.

After the inaugural edition was held in the UAE earlier this year, the organisers of PSL intended to raise the number of participating teams to six -- against the policy of not adding any other outfit to the league till its third edition.

Though the PSL also tried to lure the franchises by deciding that it would share $2 million from its net income of $2.6 million with the five franchises if they proved they had suffered loss from the first edition, it is learnt the franchises refused to accept the sixth team’s entry in return of any offer.

“Yes, no sixth team next year [in the PSL],” was the reply from PSL chairman Najam Sethi to a query. “They [franchises] have a point; they want to consolidate and build the fan base,” Sethi added.

It means after the franchises refused to take any money from the PSL income, the total PSL earning through the first edition stands at $2.6 million.

Sources, however, claim that the profit could have been around $5 to 6 million, had the PSL authorities not spent lavishly on joy riders.

“The expenditures jumped to around $9 million as against the estimated amount of around $6 million, as a good number of joy riders stayed in the UAE on PSL expenses,” the sources said.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2016