Due to the two-match home Test series for Pakistan at home against West Indies in the third cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) and the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025, scheduled to take place from February 19 to March, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is clashing with the Indian Premier League (IPL) regarding the time period during April and May.
That has led to many players choosing the latter for its craze and money-making. The PSL franchises, as a result, have found it hard to sign overseas players. The Multan Sultans’ owner, Ali Jahangir Tareen, has taken a dig at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) while responding to a question on the player’s availability for the upcoming 2025 season.
The reports have claimed that the PCB has now been trying to sign those well-known players who went unsold during the two-day mega auction of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
PSL franchise owner ridicules PCB regarding player’s availability
This list consists of the left-handed dashing opening batter of Australia, David Warner, who was surprisingly ignored by all the ten franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) despite his consistency over the years with the bat for Sunrisers Hyderabad. The leg-spinner and the pace bowler from England, Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes, respectively, or the left-arm fast bowler from Bangladesh, Mustafizur Rahman, have already signed for the draft, which will take place on January 13.
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The likes of New Zealand’s fast bowler Tim Southee, who recently announced his retirement from the longest format of the game, or their opening batter, Colin Munro, are also expected to be a part of the PSL for the upcoming edition of the event.
A number of these exciting overseas players would be taking part in the PSL player’s draft this month, but many reckon that this move could backfire. There are thought processes of what would happen if a certain player gets picked in the PSL, and later gets signed by an IPL franchise as a replacement player due to injury or national commitment.
Ali Jahangir Tareen was also asked about the development. The owner of the Multan Sultans franchise could not stop himself from making fun of the PCB, where he looked back at how the board wasn’t able to stop a player from leaving the PSL midway through the season to attend a wedding in India.
That player was the former West Indies captain, Kieron Pollard, who was part of the franchise and left the league to attend a wedding and wasn’t available for selection at the vital phase of the tournament.
“I’m sure the PCB officials will say things like, ‘We’ll do this, we’ll do that, we’ll ban them‘, but what can they do? One of our players had left a match to attend a wedding, and we couldn’t even stop him. So, what can they say to a player who’s going to play for money?” Tareen expressed in a video shared on the YouTube channel of Relukattay.
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The PCB recently accepted the hybrid model from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which allowed the latter to play all of their games till being live in the competition at the Dubai International Stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The BCCI refused to send their players to the other side of the border due to security concerns. For this reason, the ICC has picked three other grounds, the National Stadium in Karachi, the Rawalpindi Stadium, and the Gaddafi Stadium for the other encounters of the event not involving India.