THEY say that when elephants fight the grass suffers. But in the case of PCB vs PSL franchises, it seems they’ve wounded the whole herd and the grass is insignificant collateral damage.

Perhaps we should now be elaborating PSL as Pakistan Super Leaks as it is indeed perplexing that a journalist could get access to such accurate information without it having been supplied by someone with detailed access to the files. We have found outthat 5 out of 6 franchises haven’t paid their annual fees while a few among them have not paid the advances to players amounting to 600,000 dollars each.

Some believe this was leaked to the media by the PCB itself. Perhaps so. But why would PCB risk the future of the third edition at such a crucial time by bringing their quarrel with the franchises into the media?

Yes, PCB says there is nothing to worry about and that PSL3 is sure to happen. But ever heard of ‘Bad Cop, Good Cop’?

The wise man knows that whenever there is a breaking story the question to be asked is, “who benefits from it becoming public?” In this case it is certainly not the franchises. They have been embarrassed in front of their fans — and their sponsors from whom they have taken significant amounts of money.

If one or more of the finance managers were chasing up on outstanding amounts, the sponsors who are a wee bit cunning could just wait it out before the threat communicated by the PCB — that of taking over the franchise — is carried out.

You see, there is a clause in the contract signed by each of the franchises that if they default on payments, the PCB has the right to take over the franchise and sell it again at the market price prevailing. Chasing bad debts may not be the priority of the PCB once they take over, especially when they would have a franchise that is likely to be worth double today compared to what they sold it for.

So who benefits?

While PCB comes out as the victim, the leaking of the news has been disastrous for the franchises in front of potential, even current sponsors. Having been a sponsor myself for many years I would always hold to my next installments of money whenever there was chance of a management change in a sports organization. And if I was yet to invest in one, then news of unrest between the association and the parent body would lead to many second thoughts.

The franchises are already finding it tough to find sponsors. Maybe they eventually will since the sponsors know there is a deadline by which the franchises must take on a sponsor. Perhaps they are playing to the desperation of franchises, hoping for them to blink on a smaller amount.

So who benefits?

I’m not saying here that the franchises that have not yet paid up are not at fault. They are all owned by businessmen who are used to making deals with worst case scenarios in mind. And they have got good reach for their money as the first two editions have seen good audiences.

Nevertheless, now that the threat is out, the franchises can point to the economy that has hit corporates (read potential and existing sponsors) very badly over the last few months. The Rupee has depreciated raising input costs of businesses. Fuel has become expensive leading to higher logistical costs. It also leads to higher expense on utilities and overall inflationary effect.

This has led to luxury of cricket sponsorship being put on the back burner and instead maintaining cash flow to run their operations.

The franchises are all businessmen who feel that sponsors are not coming on board as much as they promised to and they therefore do not have the funds to pay for players’ advance fees. An expensive dollar has also raised the rupee amount payable to PCB which has busted the budgets of the franchises.

As such this can also be a pressure tactic by PCB to bring into the public domain the default and thereby build pressure on the franchise owners to pay up. But once the bullet has been fired what respect is left of the franchise owners? Those with thick skin could now dig in and go to court to take a stay against PCB taking them over, citing factors beyond their control.

For instance, the backing of the T10 league by the PCB. It ensured that top Pakistani players became available for it. That drew a lot of sponsors toward T10 franchises that could possibly have invested in PSL franchises instead. I’m told one of the foreign sponsors of a PSL franchise (GP) was there in the T10 league. It had earlier left a PSL franchise.

Surely this backing by PCB of a previously unannounced league that came at the very moment PSL franchises were launching their sponsorship campaign in Pakistan and abroad, has inhibited the options of PSL sponsors. If not for having the facility of T10 league, some of these foreign sponsors would have been looking at PSL for mileage in the Gulf, even in the larger market of India.

In fact the buck stops with PCB here. Whatever sincere intentions PCB officials may have had for backing the T10 league, some PSL franchises are questioning the decision. If war breaks out between the PCB and the franchises on transfer of ownership, PCB may well be caught in its own friendly fire.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2018

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