Pakistan Super League hoping for the sixth team

The Pakistan Super League (PSL) is mulling over the prospect of having the sixth team in the second edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), that would kick off early next year. The PCB wants the sixth team to be added to the already existing 5 franchises of the PSL.

The inaugural edition of the PSL saw five teams from five provincial capitals – Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar. The PSL chairman Najam Sethi wishes to include the 6^th team in the second edition named Kashmir, after the territory of Azad Kashmir in Pakistan. Sethi had tweeted last month expressing this desire, “My dream is to launch 6th Kashmir team in PSL this year. Hope our five franchisee partners will support me in this initiative.”

However, a lot of issues have to be resolved before that can become a reality. Kashmir has a controversial issue with neighboring country India. More importantly, the five franchises of the tournament are not in the favour of adding the sixth one. As per the rules stated in the PSL, no team will be added before the third edition of the tournament. Much to the disappointment of the PSL chief, only the owner of Peshawar Zalmi, Javed Afridi, welcomed this move. All other franchises are yet to give a nod for the same.

Sethi realizes that it is important for the PSL to have the consent of all five franchises before arriving at any decision.

“We will not have [a new team] until the third year that is written,” Sethi confirmed in an exclusive interview with ESPNcricinfo. “But at the same time, we are looking at the financials about the addition of a sixth team, in terms of whether it will be Kashmir, Faisalabad, Sialkot or Gilgit-Baltistan or any other team. That decision is pending. We have to weigh up the pros and cons and that’s the issue right now but we cannot have it until franchises agree. Without their consent we can’t make it,” he quoted.

He said the PCB and the PSL bodies will try to convince the franchises that the move is for the betterment of the tournament and Pakistan cricket. He quoted, “Of course we have to offer guarantee to the teams that they will be better by having a sixth team and have to convince them. I have my team working on different values and estimated profits and revenues before pitching this idea to them but this idea is definitely under consideration. Basically, the advice from our finance department is that this is the high time to add the sixth team as the values are very high at this stage before the second edition. We have to cash in the hype we have created from the first edition and this may or may go down next year.”

The inaugural edition of the PSL was a big hit and had generated a lot of revenues for Pakistan cricket.

Also read – USD 2.6 Million profit from PSL: PCB