ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) has directed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to ensure there will be no surrogate advertising during the forthcoming edition of the HBL-Pakistan Super League (PSL).

“The PCB shall ensure against any surrogate advertising as has already been directed by specific and unambiguous provisions in the contract and violations, if any, will be clear responsibility of the PCB,” read the IPC letter, dated Jan 4, addressed to the cricket board.

This year’s PSL Twenty20 tournament featuring six franchise-based teams will be held from Feb 13 to March 18.

According to the IPC Ministry letter a copy of which is available with Dawn, the PCB’s request regarding media rights has been examined, and the competent authority has decided that “the PCB shall go ahead with the bidding process of the following tenders advertised only for PSL-9 and 10 seasons and no other additional events”.

The IPC Ministry allowed the PCB to go for the bidding process of live streaming rights for PSL (Jan 3, 2024), on-screen branding rights (Jan 5), global radio and audio streaming rights (Jan 8), production service (PSL only, Jan 18) and all media rights for all regions outside Pakistan (PSL only, Jan 19).

The PCB, the letter said, shall not proceed further with any tender related to any bilateral series.

“In order to ensure transparency [for abovementioned bids] the PCB shall take financial bids in password protected electronic forms without any manual copies of and allow opening of financial bids by the respective pre-qualified bidders only at the time of opening in presence of everyone,” read the letter.

During a question-hour session in the Senate on Friday, the IPC Ministry, in a written response to a query raised by Senator Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur, stated that the Ministry of IPC has again instructed the PCB to ensure against any surrogate advertising while finalising media rights for PSL 9 and 10, adding it is therefore, “clear that the government has a zero-tolerance policy for any such activities.”

The IPC Ministry in its reply recalled that the State Bank of Pakistan in March last year had highlighted some surrogate brands which were engaged in online betting. The SBP, for that reason, had urged the PCB to ensure that these platforms do not offer any services in Pakistan, added the Ministry.

It added that the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting through three letters in recent months also identified some surrogate companies illegally engaged in sponsoring and advertising contracts with a number of media outlets and sports enterprises and had strictly advised not to promote them, and also advised the organisations concerned to immediately terminate all existing agreements with such surrogate companies.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2024