PSL 2019 dates announced
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the dates for the fourth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The PSL will begin on February 14, 2019, and end on March 17, 2019. The tournament will commence in the UAE and will be brought back to Pakistan for the final few matches like the previous tournament.
The fourth edition will see eight matches being played in Pakistan, with the final scheduled to be held in Karachi. The largest city of Pakistan has been starved of competitive cricket since a while, and the last notable match played in the city was the PSL 3 semi-final.
All PSL franchise owners, along with PCB representatives were present at the meeting which was headed by the new PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani. A number of key issues were discussed at the meeting, along with PCB’s aim of ensuring transparency and working with all stakeholders to make the PSL a bigger success.
Another key decision taken was that franchises representatives would be a part of bid committees for various upcoming PSL rights. The Chairman welcomed the inclusion of franchises in the decision-making process while reasserting the need to ensure the collective growth of partners.
He went on to say “PCB and all PSL franchises are partners in this project and I am confident that we will all work together to bring in good numbers for our next rights cycle.”
The PSL also announced the pick order for the upcoming PSL Player Draft after a discussion at the meeting. It was decided that this year’s draft would be based on last year’s ranking and would allow teams a maximum of 10 retentions. For PSL 4 onwards, all franchises agreed to introduce a randomized draft order.
Mr. Ehsan Mani also touched upon the topic of introducing the T10 league within the Pakistan Super League. It was mentioned that the Board would work on the same and unveil the T10 tournament once it manages to find a suitable window for the tournament.
It should be noted that former PCB Chairman Najam Sethi had taken the initiative to introduce the T10 league for the PSL, but wasn’t sure of when the tournament could be held due to the tight international schedule of the national team.
It was also noted earlier that since the PSL is still not very cash-rich, the T10 league could eat into its resources and have an impact on the full T20 league. A one to one-and-a-half-week-long tournament was proposed which could be held in Karachi and Lahore alone.
Earlier this month the PSL announced the signing of star South African player AB de Villiers. The batsman recently retired from international cricket, but his addition to the PSL will add a lot more star-power to the league which already has names like Brendon McCullum, Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Shahid Afridi, Shane Watson, Kumar Sangakkara etc.
De Villiers is most likely to join the Lahore Qalandars’ franchise which hasn’t seen much success in the previous three editions of the PSL.
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