PCB considering T20 league

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will be shown presentations next week on the feasibility and possibility of launching a Pakistan Premier League (PPL) Twenty20 competition this year. The board had postponed a two-day meeting on the workability of having the PPL due to the busy schedule of the board Chairman Zaka Ashraf last month. 

"But now these meetings will be held sometime next week. There are some parties who will make presentations to the board on how the PPL can be organised in the country [Pakistan]," a senior PCB official said. Sources say besides a Dubai and Karachi based sports management group, a company with direct links to well known international television broadcasting and sports management company will make presentations at the PCB meeting. 

"We are dead serious about having our own Pakistan Premier League," a senior PCB official said. 

"We are dead serious about having our own PPL. But the reality is that we have to first study the modalities and feasibility of having such an event, which would not be possible without [the] input and expertise from an established company," the official said. 

The PCB has been toying with the idea of launching its own Twenty20 league with the involvement of foreign players for sometime now but has never got down to practically implementing the event. "The situation is different now [as] we need to showcase an event in Pakistan with foreign participation, and the PPL appears to be the best bet for us," he said. 

The official added that the board was looking at a PPL model similar to the ones adopted by the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). He said the board had also become positive after a statement from the chairman of Lashings, the UK based club, that he was ready to send his team to Pakistan and also from support assured by some former Test players with links to foreign players. "It can be done but obviously it requires a lot of groundwork and hard work." 

The official admitted that the PPL will also allow Pakistani domestic players, like their counterparts in India and Bangladesh, to earn some good money. "There is no doubt that the IPL and the BPL have gone a long way in improving the status of domestic players in both [the] countries," he added.