Usama Virk – Journalist
Pakistan Super League edition six now has the official schedule announced by the Pakistan Cricket Board and it will begin in Abu Dhabi from 9th of June to 24 June. According to the official public release by the PCB, the Abu Dhabi leg of PSL 6 will have six double headers because of the tight schedule, the timings for the first match on the double header days will begin at 0600 PM PST with the second match starting at 11 PM PST. All other matches will begin at 0900 PM PST.
Since the inaugural edition of Pakistan Super League, it hasn’t been a cat walk for the board to make it, the brand that it is at global level. PSL embraced and overcame many hurdles and challenges in its journey since 2016. But, every year it came back bigger and stronger.
Things changed around the globe with the fatal novel corona virus taking over the world in 2020, also stopping the on-going Pakistan Super League’s 2020 edition in March 2020. PCB and Franchises involved suffered huge financial loss but they stood firm and completed the rest of the PSL in Karachi with host team Karachi Kings winning the PSL season 5 in November 2020.
Not only Pakistan Super League, the corona virus had every sport around the globe at stand-still be it the NFL, ICC events, Football Leagues or Cricket’s biggest franchise based league, IPL. It was understood that organizing the leagues at such scale is never going to be easy again.
But, slowly things started getting back to normal. Pakistan Cricket Board successfully hosted bilateral series in Pakistan with very effective bio-secure bubble plans and it looked like the PSL 6th edition would easily be organized in Pakistan too, which PCB did. Karachi was chosen as the one venue for the PSL 6th edition and it was decided that all the matches will be held only in Karachi because of the COVID19 SOPs.
With all the chaos regarding the increasing COVID19 cases in Pakistan, PSL edition 6 started in Karachi. What seemed to be the achievement to be celebrated, turned out to be the PCB’s worst nightmare in years. Corona cases started coming positive right and left from the “bio-secure” bubble and it had to to be stopped mid-way AGAIN.
It was 2020 all over again, but this time the reputation was at stake. The safety of players was at stake. PCB not only had to arrange vaccines for the players but also facilitated the foreign players anyway it could. This time the franchises were not happy to postpone the league for so long and yet again suffer the financial loss. It just was not acceptable for anyone.
As the time passed, the pressure from the franchises mounted on the Pakistan Cricket Board to move ahead with the remaining matches of the PSL 6 as soon as possible. It was obvious that PCB is not going to consider Pakistan as venue, not at least this year. The UAE was the only suitable option.
Abu Dhabi was decided as the final venue for the remaining matches of the PSL 6 but the biggest hurdle was the travel restrictions imposed on Pakistan, India and other countries by the UAE. PCB got the special approval to travel, subjected to a long quarantine period and strict SOPs to be followed. Now, the Indian broadcasters crew was not allowed, which again put the dark clouds of uncertainty around the PSL because without the broadcasters, how could it happen? PCB again stepped up and got special permission from the Abu Dhabi government for the crew, only to be taken back again.
Health Ministry decided it is not going to allow the Indian broadcasters in Abu Dhabi. Now the teams have already traveled to the Abu Dhabi, everything has been done and PCB is again faced with a challenge of broadcasters being sent back to Dubai from Abu Dhabi. It was reported that PCB was considering Sharjah as the alternate venue and franchises were in favour of that.
The initial date of PSL 6 to begin was June 1 and till the 3rd of June, nobody knew anything whether even PSL is happening or not but PCB released the press release announcing the schedule of the remaining matches on 3rd debunking all the rumors surrounding the PSL and now fans cannot wait for their favorite teams and players to be in action again at Abu Dhabi.
Leave a Reply