Lahore, 10 January 2024: Zaka Ashraf, Chairman PCB Management Committee, held a press conference on Wednesday at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. During the press conference, the chairman addressed the sale of HBL PSL broadcast and live-streaming rights as well as his tour to Australia. PCB COO Salman Naseer and League Commissioner Naila Bhatti were also present alongside the chairman.
Zaka Ashraf: “We have gathered here to address two things. First of all, I want to address my tour to Australia –which proved to be a fruitful meeting between the two boards. Next, I want to congratulate all the stakeholders over the HBL PSL broadcast rights bid, which had a remarkable result.
“We had talked to the Prime Minister about it earlier and he had encouraged strengthening relations with Australia as it would help cricket in Pakistan. At PCB, we were already inclined towards this. Earlier in India, we had interacted with Cricket Australia and we wanted to take that forward. We wanted to work with them for mutual benefit.
“I do not think we have had a deal of this kind with Cricket Australia previously so I think it is a good initiative. Moreover, while the tour did not result in victories for us, I think it was a good tour overall as we had some positives. Our younger talent got a chance to prove themselves, which they did with some great performances. The Australian Prime Minister hosted us as well and it was a great honour for us. The praise the Pakistan team got from their Prime Minister and the Australian cricket board was very encouraging.”
Naila Bhatti expanded on HBL PSL broadcast and live-streaming rights:
“Yesterday, we had the domestic broadcast and livestreaming rights sale for the next two editions of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL). We were apprehensive because of the country’s economic situation but we got a great price. We had four bidders – Geo Sports, Ten Sports, PTV Sports and ARY Sports. ARY Sports had the highest bid in the second round. It was around 45 per cent more than the last time so it was an excellent bid.
“Our bid committee has franchise owners too and since most of this money goes to them, they were very happy. The live-streaming bid went well too and there were many contenders. It went to a new company – an Islamabad-based company called Walee Technologies – as they had a very aggressive bid. It was 113 per cent more than the last cycle. It goes to show that HBL PSL as a brand has become very important and people want to be associated with the brand.
“The live-streaming bid exceeded the base-price. The broadcast bid did not exceed. However, earlier we had gotten done a valuation for the broadcast deal by a third-party company. The bid exceeded the valuation by over a billion.”
Explaining the discussions that took place between PCB and Cricket Australia, Salman Naseer said:
“We talked about the challenges cricket boards are facing especially managing the amount of cricket in our FTP cycles. We are thankful to Cricket Australia because we have had a healthy interaction with them over the past few months. We have had discussions with them earlier, but we utilised this tour to finalise the plans.
“First of all, we addressed how there are clashes in league schedules because of how busy the calendars are. We wanted to ensure that the schedules for HBL PSL and BBL do not clash. We also discussed player availability. Since there is so much cricket to be played – with workload management and injuries being a big factor as well – we talked about facilitating NOCs for BBL and HBL PSL to further the pool of players available for the two leagues.
“We want to work together to strengthen the two boards’ relationship. We also want to increase tours for Under-19, Shaheens and Women’s teams too to make them an annual feature. This way, they can get exposure of Asian conditions and our younger talent can get exposed to their conditions. We are working on involving more countries to this plan as well and that will come with time. We addressed training and development too, especially for pitch curators. They agreed to run training programs for our groundstaff too. For our women’s team too, we talked about filling the gaps in our FTP. We will share more details as they will flesh out. We will be signing a formal agreement too.”
Q: Is there a timeline to the development planned with Cricket Australia?
Zaka Ashraf: “We have a broad understanding of the scheduling and both the boards are on the same page. They have a scheduling committee which will finalise the plan and it will then be approved by their board. Hopefully it will all be finalised this year.
“We have developed a training plan for pitch curators with Cricket Australia. We will first train curators and then send a head curator there so they can learn. Eventually we will build a team of curators. We will hopefully grow and train curators who can look after all the grounds in Pakistan.
“We have not won a Test series in Australia in the past three decades and we can only plan for the future to better that record. We want to make sure that the younger talent acclimatises to different conditions so whenever they get a chance, they do well for Pakistan at the highest level. So, planning for Under-19 and Shaheens will help with that. Other countries like South Africa will also benefit from such tours so we will look to invite more countries to this plan as well. As far as India-Pakistan series are concerned, both the boards are ready to play one another as long as there is government clearance.”
Q: Where will the profit from the broadcasting deal go?
ZA: “95 per cent of this money goes to the franchises while PCB only gets five per cent of it. Since franchise owners have invested in the HBL PSL, it is only fair that they earn this. It is a good sign for PCB too as it will help us expand the league, which we want to do in the near future. This shows that investing in HBL PSL is a lucrative opportunity.”
Q: Can you comment on other developments that you are planning?
ZA: “I will continue to work earnestly in my capacity as long as I am in office. We have had the meeting to set things in place for the elections as well. As soon as the governing board decides, we will have the elections.
“I am thankful to DHA leadership and administration as they have promised space for stadiums and grounds which can serve as training locations for young cricketers. We are talking to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government too as we wish to have HBL PSL’s inaugural game in Arbab Niaz Stadium. We want to build a ground in Islamabad, Bahawalpur and Gujranwala too and we are in talks with DHA over it. Punjab Government has been interested in helping us as well, so we are in talks with them too. We want to increase the number of grounds, to go along with the domestic contracts we offered to our men’s and women’s cricketers earlier. This will help expand our talent pool as well.”
Salman Naseer: “One of the major projects we took was upgrading the seating in stadiums. It is just awaiting final approvals. We want to ensure that the stadiums have comfortable seating. We are also moving towards green energy and reducing our carbon omissions. For that, we are looking to move towards solar energy as a resource for our stadiums.”
