Incumbent chairman of the PSL, Najam Sethi, will also step aside from his role and each franchise will play some role in the formation of the board of directors.
Sethi announced the plans, to go ahead next month, at a book launch for inaugural winners Islamabad United and explained that the decision was made in order to create more transparency in the league.
“We are in the process of setting up the PSL as a private entity,” said Sethi. “The rules we have formulated have two important developments that will take place next month.
“The company will be formed, it will have a majority of non-executive outside directors, not from the [Pakistan] Cricket Board. One amongst them will be the chairman of the PSL, I will not be the chairman of the PSL. The chairman of the PSL will be an outside director. It will be a man of impeccable credentials.
“Number two, we will bring all the franchises into the board in one form or another. All the major decisions regarding the PSL, the franchises will be part and parcel of that. That is the only way to move forward. These franchises have put their money where their mouth is and are working hard to get the benefits of the PSL flowing.
“Amongst those benefits are the issues of grassroots cricket, talent hunts and the creation of fans and so on and so forth.”
News from @IsbUnited book launch today was @najamsethi saying @thePSLt20 will become a private company and he will not be chairman next year
— Barny Read (@BarnabyRead) October 19, 2016
Sethi explained that “controversies” from last year’s tournament must be eradicated, pointing to concerns over the draft procedure as something that must not be repeated again.
He did not explicitly mention those issues but it is apparent that some franchises were unhappy with how the draft was conducted.
“Next year, for PSL two we will have a system whereby some of the controversies that may have cropped up this year regarding the draft are removed. There will be a much more transparent and much more independent process,” said Sethi.
“I am acutely aware that this project cannot be tainted by likes and dislikes and transactions that are not transparent. And if there’s one legacy I would like to leave behind, it is this; that we in Pakistan have created a project that defied all the odds, but not only that continued to survive and grow.”
Amazing, intense atmosphere at the @lahoreqalandars talent hunt #final. Gaddafi packed! For an emerging talent match! pic.twitter.com/VFYGnRYD4P
— M. Faisal Mirza (@mfaisal_mirza) October 1, 2016
One of the other main areas of concern for Sethi was the PCB’s involvement in the PSL, raising issues of a possible conflict of interest between the parties.
The PSL was seen as an enormous success in its first edition and boasted profits of $2.6m last year.
It is yet to be disclosed how future profits will be distributed but it seems any potential revenue streams will go back into the franchises and the league. The main aim of this would be to support their outreaches into the respective communities via such programmes as the talent hunts that have proved enormously popular in recent months.
“The rules and regulations that [the directors of PCB] make in their infinite wisdom are to do with the interest that they represent,” explained Sethi who is also chairman of the PCB executive committee.
“My idea was that the PSL should not succumb to regional or departmental interests and that it should be independent of those because this was a completely new departure. When you bring the private sector into an organisation such as the PCB, the chances are that the vested interests of the elected people may encroach on the professionalism required to run a league like this.”
