The Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have had a difficult relationship ever since the inception of the marquee tournament. Although the tournament has yielded great results in terms of fame, revenue, and sponsorships, both parties have remained in a constant tussle.
Keeping up with the trend, the PSL owners have now joined hands to rubbish the rumors regarding the new PSL draft update. The announcement was posted on the social media of each franchise which carried out the same message.
"With respect to the news circulating that the PCB has directed all franchises to pick additional players in their squads, we would like to state that this news is misleading and false. It was suggested by the franchises themselves to add two players to our squads even before the draft took place on December 12th, 2021. We are grateful to PCB for accepting our offer."
It is important to note that this online protest was not joined by Quetta Gladiators and Karachi Kings whereas the public statement by other franchises mentions "all franchise owners."
Earlier on Friday, a number of media outlets reported that since a lot of top-performing domestic players remained unpicked in the drafting phase, PCB has now instructed the PSL franchise to add two additional local players.
However, this news did not sit well with the PSL franchise owners and it prompted them to join hands and state that it was not a decision guided by PCB but the franchisees themselves.
The new draft rule, however, states that each franchise can pick two additional players; either the franchise can pick two local players or they can pick one local and one foreign player.
This just proves that the PSL franchises and PCB still have unresolved issues and they need to be dealt with moving forward otherwise it can seriously impact the brand of PSL.
Under the previous PCB management, the governing board did make a committee to oversee and resolve all the differences between PCB and PSL franchises. However, it did not amount to any substantial progress apart from a couple of noteworthy things.
Here are the announcements made by the PSL franchises: