LAHORE: Finally, the franchises of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) have succeeded in convincing the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) about their financial losses to get considerable relief from the seventh edition of the competition to be held in January 2022.

“Taking into the account legal and contractual framework, the PCB has offered a new financial model to the franchisees with the sole purpose of supporting and resolving their concerns. The PCB expects the franchisees to accept this offer so that we can switch our focus on strengthening the HBL PSL brand,” read a press release issued after the meeting between PCB chairman Ramiz Raja and the franchises’ owners here on Monday.

“As part of its commitment and resolve to assist and support the franchises so that they can continue to play their crucial role in the growth of cricket in Pakistan, the PCB has offered the following to the six franchisees: Covid-19 relief for HBL PSL 5 and 6; Increased share from the Central Pool of Revenue (CPR) for HBL PSL 7 to 20, Fixation of Dollar rate,” the press release concluded.

It is learnt that the increase in the CPR offered to the franchises is 90 per cent plus of the total revenue, which was 80 in the past.

Moreover, the main issue is related to the fixation of US dollar, which has sky-rocketed during the last three years, increasing from Rs100 per US$ to Rs170. The discussion was held to fix the rate at 136 per US$, till the next 14 editions.

Moreover, as the Covid-19 has hindered the last two editions of the PSL (5 and 6) as both were postponed, it created problems for the franchises in dealing with their foreign players’ remuneration issues. Now the PCB will also help out the franchises in this regard, besides bearing all the incremental cost of the last edition, which had to be shifted from Pakistan to the UAE midway due to the emergence of Covid-19 cases in Karachi during March 2021.

It may be mentioned here that the franchises claim that they are facing financial losses but the PCB is earning profits, according to the existing financial model, which the former signed in 2015 for a period of ten years.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2021