LAHORE: The Tareen family, owner of Multan Sultans, a franchise of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) has also succeeded to become sponsor of the Southern Punjab Association with the main focus on development of the players.

Talking to Dawn, Ali said that the affairs of Multan Sultans will be run by his uncle while he himself would come forward as sponsor of the Southern Punjab Association. He said his first priority had been for a very long time to develop and groom the players and for that purpose, Southern Punjab Association would hire the services of best coaches, trainers and to use the High Performance Centre in a better way. Ali said the main purpose of his joining the Southern Punjab Association was not to win the trophy but to develop the players and to produce the best talent for the national team.

Asked to disclose the sponsorship deal he had signed with the PCB two weeks back, Ali said it would not be not be possible for him as only the PCB is in a position to provide any information on this.

He, however, said his offer for the Southern Punjab Association was the biggest among all other five sponsors of other respective provincial cricket associations. He said the PCB would also announce the interim body of all six cricket associations in which an eight-member committee would run the affairs with two members from the sponsors also featuring in it. When asked if he was satisfied with the role given to sponsors in the eight-member committee, Ali said the main purpose was not to get any power but to provide maximum facilities to the players to develop their skills and that he would do his best.

It may be mentioned here that the PCB in its new constitution introduced on Aug 19, 2019 had abolished 16 regional cricket associations besides all affiliated departments to run the domestic cricket on six cricket associations namely Central Punjab, Southern Punjab, Northern, Sindh, KP and Balochistan. But despite the passage of almost 19 months, so far the PCB could not announce the interim bodies. In the last media talk, PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan had said that the bodies might be announced by Feb 28 after the meeting of the Board of Governors scheduled for Karachi on Feb 27. The revival of the domestic system is essential to start club and city cricket which is the backbone of cricket.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2021