Pakistan Super League postponed indefinitely
The Pakistan Super League, the country's franchise-based Twenty20 tournament, has been postponed from its planned March-April schedule
Pakistan board's PSL press release
The PCB and PSL Management after thoughtful deliberations with stakeholders and considering the desire expressed by them to give more time to prepare to invest in the League, arrived at the following conclusions:
1. The concerns expressed by the stakeholders on tight timelines for submission of bids and leveraging of assets, hold merit.
2. Several requests are coming from other parties keen on picking up bid documents to become part of this extravaganza and hence more time given will benefit the League and all stakeholders.
3. While a lot of progress has already been made in getting tax exemption for PSL (broadcasters, franchise, players, investors) from the government, it seems that finalization of this approval would take some more time due to procedures involved at relevant authorities,and the bid process would already be concluded by the time tax exemptions are granted. This could impact upon the valuations done by various bidders.
4. Over 80 foreign players (and growing) have already signed to participate in PSL auction but the process of NOCs from the relevant boards is still underway and would require some time.
5. Some scheduling conflicts that arose after PSL dates were announced could result in potential star players missing out on the opportunity of participating in PSL.
Umar Farooq is ESPNcricinfo's Pakistan correspondent