The former Pakistan captain and legendary left-arm pacer Wasim Akram has recently opened up why the Indian Premier League (IPL) is highly successful and the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is not in the same level yet.
The cash-rich Indian T20 league, IPL, is undoubtedly huge successful. While the competition level is very high in this tournament, the players, support staff and the franchises are also now earning very well. IPL is now moving to the 13th edition, and it is only growing up with the time progress.
On the other hand, the other T20 leagues haven’t managed to achieve this height of success yet, and the five-year-old PSL is currently struggling enough, at least financially.
Wasim Akram, who experienced both the IPL (Kolkata Knight Riders) and PSL (Islamabad United, Multan Sultans and Karachi Kings) as the coach, feels that there is a big difference between these two leagues and he majorly pointed out the monetary reason. While the IPL franchises can buy good players by using a good amount of money, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is utilising their huge profit in the first-class cricket to maintain their development in the game.
Akram told Tanveer Ahmed on his YouTube channel, “There is a difference now (between IPL and PSL). In the last five-six years, there has been a big difference. They have put in a lot of money. IPL is the biggest cricket tournament in the world. A team’s budget only is around 60-80 Cr to buy players…Indian currency…double in our currency. So when profit is made on that kind of money BCCI invests it back into first-class cricket.”
The system is completely different in India than Pakistan: Wasim Akram
While in the last few years, many good quality cricketers have grown up in India and the process is continuously moving forward, Akram believes that the personal coaches are the main reason. The 54-year-old former Pakistan left-arm pacer has pointed out how the former Indian players are becoming the coaches, and it is helping to grow up the players positively.
Akram added, “Most players in the IPL have their personal coaches, like Praveen Amre. They have hired such kind of former cricketers who have gone on to become good coaches. You look at their batsmen, they play with such high confidence. The system is completely different.”
The BCCI is now busy to organise the IPL 13 successfully in this calendar year. Though it was originally scheduled between 29th March and 24th May 2020 in India, the coronavirus pandemic forced to postpone this tournament for an indefinite period.
Now, the BCCI has decided to organise the IPL 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from September to November 2020.