Explained: What is the new Champions Cup in Pakistan? Can it improve the country's cricket?
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) introduced a new one-day tournament into their domestic calendar earlier this year - the Champions Cup. This tournament features five teams made up of the best cricketers in the country.
Each team has been assigned a mentor - Shoaib Malik, Waqar Younis, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Misbah-ul-Haq, and Younis Khan - and are not based on regional affiliations. The sides are called Markhor, Stallions, Panthers, Lions, and Dolphins.
These sides will go at it against each other to build a roadmap for Pakistan's one-day team ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy, slated to be held in the country in February next year.
All the matches will be played in Faisalabad, and almost every available and fit centrally contracted player has been selected to add to the depth as well as standard of the competition.
This tournament is being seen as the PCB pulling out all stops to ensure that the team does not face any hiccups in the Champions Trophy next year and is ready for any challenges coming their way.
Pakistan do not have any international fixtures during this tournament, and this will ensure it is being played at a high level, with international stars making their presence felt. It ends on September 29, eight days before England visit for a Test series.
Can the Champions Cup help Pakistan's cricket?
While it may seem like, at first glance, this tournament is bound to improve cricket in Pakistan, there are several views which say that it is a short-term solution and one that cannot have long-term rewards.
The biggest criticism that this tournament has drawn is the inclusion of almost the entire Pakistan senior side, which means that a lot of talented and promising youngsters who performed well in domestic cricket had to be overlooked.
If Pakistan want to build a core white-ball side that looks beyond the here and the now, they will have to invest in their youth and not rely as much on their experienced stars as they have so far, especially with their backs to the wall.
Pakistan have always faced the same issues - a lack of continuity with any plan or program that comes up - and this tournament will have to be immune to this disease if it is to help the country's cricketers.
While it has been created with the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy in mind, the selectors have to make sure that it does not become the one-stop solution for selection into the country's white-ball teams in the future.
A lot of cricketers who are going through the daily grind in domestic cricket, as mentioned earlier, have been overlooked for this tournament to make way for established stars, and this is not something Pakistan can afford.
It is their youth that will carry them forward much after the current crop of players has called it quits at the international level, and to deprive them of exposure is akin to committing a sin.
The financial sustainability of this tournament has also been called into question, with five mentors reportedly being paid PKR 25 million collectively each month. The prize money for the winners is nearly half of that in the PSL.
On the plus side, this tournament puts all players on a level footing and does not distinguish between those who have served the country with distinction and those who are merely dipping their toes in these waters.
The country's white-ball cricket has not been where the board - or the players - for that matter would like it to be at the moment, and this tournament is a step in the right direction even if it is meant to be solely in focus for the ICC event.
If Pakistan manage to make this tournament a regular fixture in their domestic calendar and give the PSL the importance it deserves, their cricket will be in fine hands. However, stability is what they have seldom had.