LAHORE: The Pakistan Super League (PSL) project received a big boost here on Thursday after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that the franchise rights of all five outfits participating in the high-profile league have been sold out for a whopping US$93m for a 10-year period, with the Karachi franchise fetching the highest bid.

“The PCB is proud to announce that the PSL’s commercial rights for franchises, title sponsorship and broadcast have been sold out,” disclosed the PSL’s focal person Najam Sethi in a hurriedly-called news conference here soon after the bidding process was completed.

“I am delighted with this development which is a major achievement in our PSL journey,” said Sethi. “The best thing is that all team owners are ardent cricket fans whose dedication will make the league a success. And HBL association with our high-profile league is another indication that established brands are partnering with the PSL,” said the ex-chairman.

The Karachi franchise emerged as the most expensive one, fetching US$2.6m which was followed by the Lahore franchise with the Quetta outfit attracting the lowest bid in the auction.

The PCB later issued a press release on Thursday which stated: “With Quetta, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad set to vie for glory in the first edition of the league, franchise rights were awarded to successful bidders at the end of the bidding process.

“Quetta’s rights have been sold to Omar Associates while CEO of ARY Group Salman Iqbal has successfully bought the Karachi franchise. Rights for the Lahore franchise have been awarded to Qatar Oil. Islamabad’s franchise has been sold to Leonine Global Sports with CEO of Haier Group and a long-time partner of Pakistan cricket Javed Afridi winning rights for the Peshawar franchise,” it further stated.

Though Sethi shied away from disclosing the amounts of franchise deals, he did say that Habib Bank has bought the title sponsorship of the high-profile league which is scheduled to be held in the UAE from Feb 4-23.

Sethi termed the bidding process as ‘quite satisfactory and transparent.’ “The bidding process was not only open to all bidders but also video recorded,” he said.

Sethi, who is also the PCB executive committee head, said that a total of 25 bidders including some foreigners showed interest in the franchises but only Pakistanis living in or out of the country remained successful in clinching the bids.

To a question whether the PSL had achieved its target in the bidding process and selling of other rights, Sethi said it had met more than the expectations.

Sethi also dispelled the impression that the PSL project primarily depended on the Indo-Pak series and added that the league is scheduled to be organized in February next year while the bilateral series against India is expected in December this year.

Meanwhile, Dawn has learnt that a major breakthrough regarding the Indo-Pak series is likely to be made in a couple of days with the Indian prime minister expected to announce the resumption of bilateral cricket series between the two countries.

Also, Sethi said that the broadcast rights had been given to PTV Sports and Dubai-based Ten Sports Channels for the next three years.

Commenting on this particular development, Sethi said: “Having awarded production rights to Sunset+Vine, the next step was to ensure that we get the maximum number of eyeballs and I would like to welcome our media rights partners.”

“The sale of all commercial rights — broadcast, franchise, and sponsorship — is perfectly in line with the league’s budgetary estimates,” commented the ex-chairman who further said that process for selecting coaches for all five teams will occur in the next 10 days while the player-drafting process will take place by the end of December.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2015