PSL governing council meeting postponed due to unavailability of PCB officials

The Pakistan Super League (PSL) governing council meeting, scheduled to take place via video link on July 28, has been postponed by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

According to details, all the franchises were surprised as they had not received the agenda of the meeting till Monday. However, then later in the day, they received an email informing them about the meeting being postponed.

Few days earlier, the franchises had said that the PCB is making profits from the PSL and they were incurring losses while urging for a new financial model to counter this issue. PCB had asked the franchises to provide the details of their sponsorships to the board while ensuring that their reservations will be addressed. But most franchises didn’t provide the required details. As a result of which, PCB decided to postpone the meeting.

However, according to sources, the real reason for postponement is the unavailability of top PCB officials. The PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan had left for a vacation to England 10 days ago while no prior information was provided on the matter. Due to which, he also missed the weekly meeting with the senior management of the board.

PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani had also left for England along with his wife in the chartered plane that transported the Pakistan cricket team to England. The Chairman has been on vacation for almost a month now. The two top officials taking a vacation during these challenging times is a surprising development.

According to sources, the franchise owners are not happy with the postponement of the governing council meeting. They had written a letter to the PCB and shared a list of their concerns with the board.

The franchise owners also raised the issue of the new 15 per cent royalty tax. A committee was also formed for the issue of fixing a dollar rate but no concrete steps have taken place since then.

PCB had also given a one-week deadline for some franchises that are yet to pay their complete dues. One franchise had to pay a tax amount while another had to pay a portion of the total fees.

In the last Governing Council meeting, the owners were also told that their demands of extending the ownership period of a franchise and home-away matches would be discussed in detail. However, now the franchises will have to wait till the next meeting for the board to address the aforementioned issues.