PCB urges PSL franchises to submit financial guarantee

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has, once again, urged the Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises to submit financial guarantee for the sixth season, as they continue deliberation over a revised financial model.

Last month, the franchises had filed a case against the PCB in the Lahore High Court (LHC) after suffering major losses, due to the current financial model, over the course of the last five years.

Later, in the proceedings before the Lahore High Court (LHC) an out-of-court settlement was agreed upon between the parties to deliberate and discuss the disagreements and other issues associated with the structure of the PSL.

According to sources, it was decided in the first meeting that PCB won’t ask for a financial guarantee from franchises for a while, as they are still recovering from the economic effects of Covid-19 on their businesses. However, the board had again asked the franchises to keep their word and submit the guarantee by October 23. Hence, all the six owners, collectively, emailed the board requesting more time.

ALSO READ: Babar Azam frontrunner for Pakistan Test captaincy

Sources further added that PSL franchises have held a ‘positive and constructive meeting’ with PCB Chief Financial Officer Javed Murtaza and PSL Project Executive Shoaib Naveed, to discuss the reservations over the tournament’s financial model. The board has offered the franchises, through the draft proposal, a fixed dollar exchange rate of 168 for the next five years, whereas the franchises want the PCB to fix the exchange rate at 102, equal to the rate of the dollar in the first season. An important meeting in this regard is expected between the board and franchises at the end of this month.

On the other hand, according to sources, franchises were not consulted before the PCB decided to shift the remaining PSL 5 matches from Lahore to Karachi. According to franchise owners, this has been done to favour Karachi Kings.