{"id":25105,"date":"2025-10-27T12:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=25105"},"modified":"2025-10-27T12:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:04:12","slug":"comment-dont-destroy-the-pakistan-super-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=25105","title":{"rendered":"Comment: Don\u2019t destroy the Pakistan Super League"},"content":{"rendered":"
Let me give you some breaking news \u2014 Multan Sultans haven\u2019t paid their fee, so the PCB is terminating their contract.<\/p>\n

This was back in 2018 when a friend told me this. I reached out to other sources and found out that the owners had been shocked by the huge annual fee. They had bought the team in a rush for $5.2 million a year, but soon realized it was a massive loss-making deal. So, they wanted to back out.<\/p>\n

I contacted an official from Multan Sultans, and from their response, I could tell the news was true \u2014 though perhaps they didn\u2019t want it published yet, or wanted to give it their own spin. But I didn\u2019t hold back and broke the story. That created a storm in cricket circles. Soon after, the board issued a press release announcing the termination of the contract.<\/p>\n

Later, a new party bought the team, and things seemed to return to normal.<\/p>\n

Now, once again, my sources tell me that Multan Sultans\u2019 contract is about to end \u2014 PCB has already issued a notice. I broke the story, and you\u2019ve all seen what\u2019s happened since. The real damage from this dispute is to the PSL and Pakistan cricket itself. The board also bears some responsibility \u2014 it must make serious efforts to turn the PSL into a bigger brand and address the flaws that have become apparent.<\/p>\n

The PCB should form a permanent PSL management team that continues to function smoothly regardless of board changes.<\/p>\n

At first, this fight seemed staged \u2014 but now it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s not. The question arises: there are six franchises in the PSL \u2014 why is it always Multan Sultans that ends up in crisis?<\/p>\n

The main reason is their unusually high franchise fee. The combined fee of four other current franchises equals roughly what Multan Sultans alone pays. But then another question arises \u2014 why didn\u2019t the Tareen family learn a lesson from Schon Properties?<\/p>\n

That team was once considered a terrible purchase at $5.2 million, so how did they end up buying it for $6.35 million?<\/p>\n

It was only thanks to former PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja, who had locked the dollar rate at 170.5 PKR, otherwise imagine paying the same fee now at the current 283 PKR rate! Even if one has unlimited wealth, money must still be spent wisely.<\/p>\n

If you have a billionaire friend, try asking him to lend you a few hundred thousand rupees \u2014 he\u2019ll tell you such a tale of financial struggle that you\u2019ll end up feeling sorry for him. No big businessman likes to make a losing deal.<\/p>\n

In Multan Sultans\u2019 case, perhaps it was ego at the beginning. There were rumors that another party \u2014 possibly a rival \u2014 wanted to buy the team, so they decided to get it at any cost. Later, they realized it was a bad shot.<\/p>\n

As long as Alamgir Tareen was alive, things somehow stayed manageable. Earlier, Ali Tareen was involved with his uncle, but some issues arose and he eventually distanced from the franchise . After Alamgir\u2019s passing, Ali became the owner again.<\/p>\n

Before the 10th edition of the PSL, Ali Tareen began making statements about the league that the authorities didn\u2019t like. What started in podcasts escalated to tweets. His relationship with CEO Salman Naseer didn\u2019t seem pleasant either. Salman also hired an official who had previously worked with Multan Sultans, which added more bitterness.<\/p>\n

These issues have harmed the PSL. Matters that should\u2019ve been discussed in conference rooms started being aired in public.<\/p>\n

To be fair, some of Ali Tareen\u2019s points weren\u2019t wrong \u2014 PSL operations are indeed slow, and there\u2019s a lot of room for improvement. But as a stakeholder, he should\u2019ve used the proper platform. Sometimes, even his choice of words was not appropriate.<\/p>\n

If he had made those suggestions in board meetings, things might not have escalated this far. By highlighting flaws publicly, he has diminished the PSL\u2019s image \u2014 especially at a time when the league\u2019s valuation, franchise renewals, addition of two new teams, and new broadcast and sponsorship deals were in progress.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve devalued the PSL yourself and almost brought it down to the level of the Bangladesh and Sri Lankan leagues.<\/p>\n

The board, on the other hand, claims that Ali Tareen\u2019s aim was to create such a fuss so he could buy back the team at a lower fee during re-bidding. But was it really necessary to create so much drama for that?<\/p>\n

Ali Tareen says the board should\u2019ve invited him for tea to discuss things \u2014 yet he mockingly tore up the legal notice.<\/p>\n

Had Najam Sethi or Zaka Ashraf been in charge, perhaps he could\u2019ve pulled off his move. But can he really pressure someone like Mohsin Naqvi, arguably the second most powerful man in the country?<\/p>\n

Some people say that Ali Tareen gained more fame from this controversy than he ever did from owning a PSL team. His video has already been watched by millions, and it\u2019s boosted his political profile ahead of the next election.<\/p>\n

But the public\u2019s memory is short \u2014 will they even remember this by then?<\/p>\n

Look at the Indian media coverage \u2014 they\u2019ve given so much attention to this dispute and used it to discredit Pakistan.<\/p>\n

If the Sultan\u2019s contract is terminated and Ali Tareen gets banned, he\u2019ll present himself as a savior of Pakistan cricket who was wronged. But the core issue remains the same \u2014 it\u2019s all about the franchise fee.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see whether this fight escalates or influential political figures step in to broker peace.<\/p>\n

I also tried to contact Ali Tareen to get his perspective beyond the videos and tweets, but he didn\u2019t respond. He believes the PCB leaked the story through me \u2014 otherwise, no one would\u2019ve known about the notice for a month.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, a few days earlier when I wrote about delays and flaws in the PSL, one top league official told, \u201cAli Tareen had that story planted.\u201d<\/p>\n

By tearing up the notice, Ali Tareen may have gained followers \u2014 but he\u2019s certainly closed the doors of reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Only an extremely influential personality might now be able to break that door open and bring him back into the fold.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let me give you some breaking news \u2014 Multan Sultans haven\u2019t paid their fee, so the PCB is terminating their contract. This was back in 2018 when a friend told me this. I reached out to other sources and found out that the owners had been shocked by the huge annual fee. They had bought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}