The buildup to the first season of the PSL last year was a whirlwind. Staying with meteorological metaphors, the leadup to this year’s competition has oscillated between the calm before the storm and torrential downpour.

I am involved with Player and Talent Acquisition as well as Franchise Relations Management. Both endeavours require year-round work.

The process for PSL 2017 started just a fortnight after last year’s competition wrapped up. The first steps were ascertaining availability windows, reaching out to agents, players, national boards, and counties. The scope of our activity this year was much greater than last year, which shows that the tournament is growing.

We were able to rope in some big names. It is a testament to the quality of the PSL that names like Brendon McCullum, Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine, and Kieron Pollard chose to be part of this year’s draft. Numerous other prominent players expressed interest in participating in the League as soon as their national commitments would allow.

Going into the player auction, the franchises held several meetings, and after some heated debates, arrived at their decision as to which players to buy. It wasn’t easy to decide which players to buy, and I don’t think any team was fully satisfied, but that’s just the nature of the sport. But once the lineups were finalised, the excitement began to grow.

With the enhanced commercial value of this year’s tournament, the PSL has new sponsors and the expectations on the marketing front are higher than last time. With our social media campaigns, we have gotten the fans pumped and singing to the tunes of the PSL.

We are confident that the quality of the matches will be top notch. The pitches that are being prepared are tailor-made for competitive matches and the teams are ready to put on their best display.

I would encourage whoever can head to Dubai or Sharjah to be a part of this ‘Made in Pakistan’ product that we can all be proud of and rally behind.

Those who can’t, tune in to your favourite sports channels – you won’t want to miss out on this!

You can view the schedule here.