Income loss: PSL postponement leaves Pakistan T20 players disappointed

The sudden decision of the Pakistan Cricket Board to postpone it's much-hyped Super League T20 has left many players, who were stopped from playing in the Bangladesh Premier League, disappointed and upset.

The PCB didn't issue NOCs to around three dozen Pakistani players, many of them notable names, in January to play in the BPL after franchises brought them for handsome amounts in the players auction for the second edition of the BPL.

The PCB took its stand in apparent retaliation to the refusal of the Bangladesh cricket board to not send its team to Pakistan in January because of security fears.

"Now what will happen to our lost earnings. We were hoping that we will be compensated through the PSL but now only god knows when it will be organized," a leading player told PTI on Saturday.

The general reaction from cricketers was that the PCB should have allowed the players to play in the BPL and earn some good money.

"After refusing us permission the board had indicated it would compensate us through the PSL," one player pointed out.

Most of the players, who didn't want to be named for obvious reasons and who have played for Pakistan, said they were apprehensive from the start whether the PSL would be held as announced by the board in March-April due to the uncertain security situation in the country.

"I don't know on what grounds the board was sure it could organize the PSL," another player said.

The players who were not allowed to go for the BPL lost out on an earnings ranging from 280,000 to 300,000 dollars.

Another player lamented that the board had also failed to convince the Indian board to allow Pakistani players to appear in the Indian Premier League.

The PCB through a press release on Friday evening announced the indefinite postponement of the PSL claiming it had taken this decision to give more time to stakeholders who were interested in participating in various bids for the PSL including the franchises, broadcasting rights, sponsorship and players.

The PCB announced in the release that the decision was taken after thoughtful deliberations with stakeholders and considering the desire expressed by them to give more time to prepare to invest in the League.

The press release stated that the board had come to the conclusion that the concerns expressed by the stakeholders on tight timelines for submission of bids and leveraging of assets, hold merit and that several requests are coming from other parties keen on picking up bid documents to become part of this extravaganza and hence more time given will benefit the League and all stakeholders.

It also said that while a lot of progress has already been made in getting tax exemption for PSL (broadcasters, franchise, players, investors) from the government, it seems that finalization of this approval would take some more time due to procedures involved at relevant authorities, and the bid process would already be concluded by the time tax exemptions are granted.

The press release also claimed that over 80 foreign players (and growing) have already signed to participate in PSL auction but the process of NOCs from the relevant boards is still underway and would require some time.

It also admitted that some scheduling conflicts that arose after PSL dates were announced could result in potential star players missing out on the opportunity of participating in PSL.