2nd Pakistan Super League Twenty20 (PSL T20) finally going to start on 9 February, 2017 after a long anticipation. 5 teams including Karachi Kings, Lahore Qalandars, Peshawar Zalmi, Quetta Gladiators and Islambad United set their club for the biggest twenty20 county league of Pakistan. It would be more big if PCB can arrange it on Pakistan but can’t doing this cause of Political fluctuation. Though United Arab Emirates is just another base of Pakistan cricket.
We know that there have one kind of emulous attitude between India and Pakistan for every purpose where they have scope to compete each other. Though as like Pakistan & India cricket team there have more leading cricket nation but their people are more excited for a match between them. This is why a match between India Vs Pakistan is mentioned as the biggest cricket event of the earth. Not only in cricket but also in football, hockey and other category sports, surprisingly their performance level in same together which make their match more breathtaking. It’s need to mention that still they have little bit contradiction in border as well. Few years back, people around the world also heard a rumor after a regular interval that another Pak-India war going to happen. Though our discussion topic isn’t about India-Pak unstable circumstances but it’s 100% true that this situation is the created PSL Vs IPL argument.
Couple of Pakistani news & internet media already write down the opportunity of Pakistan Super League comparing with IPL. Even Pakistan cricket fans also started to raise their voice to popularize PSL over IPL. Their activity on cricket forums, social media and blogs mentioning that pak fans want to see PSL as the most successful twenty20 league than IPL and it will be a revenge for them as few years back BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) decided to give up all Pakistani cricketers from IPL. May be Indian cricket fans don’t care this issue still now and the acceptability of IPL around the cricket world giving them more confidence. This is why our team didn’t see any special activity/comments from their side.
1. Total clubs:
PCB made 5 teams to start their first journey but Indian Premier League started with 8 clubs. Yes, As much team as much match, as much opportunity to involve more cricketer.
Teams played 1st IPL (2008)
Rajashthan Royals, Chennai Super Kings, Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils, Decan Chargers, Mumbai Indians (Total team – 8)
Teams of 1st IPL
Teams playing 1st PSL (2016)
Lahore Qalandars, Karachi Kings, Quetta Gladiators, Peshawar Zalmi and Islambad United (Total team – 5)
Teams of PSL
2. Prize Money & franchise budget:
Pakistan Super League (2016): Total prize money of PSL T20 is 1 Million USD. Each franchise can spend 1 Million USD for Auction and for the purpose of team management. According to the budget of franchise, they will decided to pay salary caps to their 16 players.
Indian Premier League (2015): Champion/Winner awarded 5.9 Million USD (40 crore INR). 1st, 2nd runner-up and 4th team respectively awarded 10 crore, 7.5 crore & 7.5 crore. Each franchise can spend 10 Million USD to the purpose of Auction, salary & team management. A player annual salary fixed at least 50,000 USD and Under-22 cricketers got 20,000 USD for a season.
PSL Vs IPL statistics
3. Icon Cricketers & Captains:
Pakistan national team cricketer Misbah-ul-Haque & Younis Khan already provide their opinion against the icon player selection for PSL. Actually, it was expected by them to see all icon players from Pakistan. PCB authority basically elected foreign cricketer to focus PSL in other nations.
Pakistan Super League (2016):
Icon players: Chris Gayle (West Indies), Shahid Afridi (Pakistan), Shane Watson (Australia), Shoaib Malik (Pakistan), Kevin Pietersen (England)
Captains: Sarfraz Ahmed (Quetta Gladiators), Islamabad United (Misbah-ul-Haq), Peshawar Zalmi (Shahid Afridi), Lahore Qalandars (Umar Gul/Azhar Ali), Karachi Kings (Shoaib Malik)
PSL Captains
Indian Premier League (2015):
Icon players (2008-2009): Team making procedure of IPL, stop the system of icon player choice but into the first 2 seasons they chosen Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Yuvraj Singh as the icon player.
Captains (2015): Sunrisers Hyderabad (David Warner), Royal Challengers Bangalore (Virat Kohli), Rajasthan Royals (Shane Watson), Kings XI Punjab (George Bailey), Chennai Super Kings (MS Dhoni), Kolkata Knight Riders (Gautam Gambhir), Maumbai Indians (Rohit Sharma), Delhi Daredevils (JP Duminy)
Captains of IPL 2015
No question about the experience of Afridi, Malik and Misbah but the captaincy of Azhar Ali and Sarfraz Ahmed won’t give more support to Quetta & Lahore possibly.
4. Total Match & Duration:
24 matches of Pakistan Super League (PSL) will be held in 20 days. On the other hand, 60 matches of Indian Premier League (IPL) take 45 days to finish. Usually, people don’t feel bore to watch cricket and as much match, as much entertainment no doubt.
5. List of Foreign Cricketers:
Around 6-8 players on main & Supplementary squad of PSL. It’s need to mention that 5 foreign cricketers can play on each franchise which is little bit more than any other twenty20 leagues. This is a good decision by PCB to give the opportunity to the franchise to keep 5 foreign players into their best XI squad.
Pakistan Super League:
Peshawar Zalmi (6) – Darren Sammy, Chris Jordan, Tamim Iqbal, Jim Allenby, Dawid Malan, Brad Hodge
Karachi Kings (6) – Shakib al Hasan, Ravi Bopara, Lendl Simmons, James Vince, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tillakaratne Dilshan
Islamabad United (5) – Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, Andre Russell, Sam Billings, Ashar Zaidi
Lahore Qalandars (4) – Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Kevon Cooper, Cameron Delport
Quetta Gladiators (7) – Kevin Pietersen, Jason Holder, Luke Wright, Elton Chigumbura, Mohammad Nabi, Kumar Sangakkara, Aizaz Cheema
Each team of IPL have around 7-9 foreign cricketer and 4 of them can play on each match.
Indian Premier League:
CSK (9) – Dwayne Bravo, Matt Henry, Dwayne Smith, Mike Hussey, Andrew Tye, Faf Du Plessis, B McCullum, Samuel Dadree, Kyle Abbott
KKR (9) – Morne Morkel, Sunil Narine, Shakib Al Hasan, Patrick Cummins, Ryan Ten Doeschate, Johan Botha, Andre Russell, Azhar Mahmood, Brad Hogg
DD (9) – JP Duminy, Q de Kock, Angelo Mathews, Gurinder Sandhu, Marcus Stoinis, N Culter Nile, Imran Tahir, Albie Morkel, Travis Head
KXIP (7) – George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, David Miller, M. Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Thisara Perera, Hendricks
MI (9) – Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Lendl Simmons, Corey Anderson, Hazlewood, Aaron Finch, De Lange, McClenaghan, Aiden Blizzard
RR (8) – Steven Smith, Shane Watson, James Faulkner, Ben Cutting, Tim Southee, Kane Richardson, Christopher Morris, Juan Theron
RCB (9) – Chris Gayle, AB De Villiers, Michell Starc, Nic Maddinson, Rille Rossouw, Darren Sammy, Adam Milne, Sean Abbott, David Wiese
SRH (8) – Trent Boult, Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Kane Williamson, Kevin Pietersen, Moises Henriques, Dale Steyn, David Warner
6. Host & Venue Issue:
All matches of Pakistan Super League will be held on United Arab Emirates Ground including Sharjah, Abu Dhabi & Dubai where IPL matches held on own ground of India including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hayderabad, Mohali, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Raipur, Vishakhapatnam. Though UAE is the most familiar ground for Pakistan but cost of transportation & accommodation is little bit high which will hamper the audience total in PSL T20. Most of the IPL team play in own region which encourage supporters to enjoy their favourite team match on stadium.
Huge Audience in IPL
7. Media Coverage:
Around 25+ Sports network broadcast IPL around most of the countries around the world. PCB keeps focus in cricket playing nations only and 8 cricket network still deal with them to broadcast Pakistan Super League. Actually, media help a tournament to popularize and increase the value. BCCI do this job perfectly and keep ahead IPL comparing with other twenty20 league all over the world.
8. Bollywood Issue:
Bollywood is the 2nd most popular movie making association around the world just after Hollywood. Involvement of Bollywood actor & actress make IPL more enjoyable. As like people love KKR more cause of Shahrukh Khan & Juhi Chawla, fans like Kings XI punjab for Preity Zinta. Media journalists also focus this issues and entertain fans.
Shahrukh Khan inspiring his team KKR
9. Sponsorship:
IPL is sponsored by the biggest multinational companies like Pepsi, Vivo, Vodafone, Yes Bank etc and most of richest person & companies always interested to buy a club in IPL. PCB also successfully managed top companies to buy franchises but if we consider the sponsors net worth, should keep head the sponsors of Indian Premier League.
10. Population:
Cricketer play cricket for their nation/club and for the supporters. There is no doubt that audiences is the power of a cricket tournament. As much audience, as much business, as much popularity. India is in 2nd position for 100 crore people of them which gave more energy to the management team. It’s true that the popularity of Pakistan & India cricket is close enough around the world but UAE hosted PSL will get how much audiences it’s really a big question right now.
It’s need to mention that there is no author working behind Sports Maza from India & Pakistan. Our vision is always to provide an honest & real prediction for our readers. We have respect to the love and excitement of Pakistani fans for PSL as well. But it’s true that the prediction or, possibility calculation will always favoure one side.
Opinion: Hopefully, Pakistan Super League going to be the 2nd most popular twenty20 league and it’s popularity would more than Big Bash, Caribbean Premier League & BPL but still it will take few more year to come to the same level of IPL.
