KARACHI: As many as five Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises out of the six have failed to deposit the ‘bank security’ money with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) despite the expiry of its deadline back in August, reliable sources told Dawn here on Wednesday.

According to their contract with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), all the six PSL franchises are required to deposit the ‘bank security money on annual rolling basis several months before the start of the new PSL season.

However, according to sources, only Lahore Qalandars have cleared the ‘bank guarantee’ amount well before the stipulated time while the other five franchises — Islamabad United, Peshawar Zalmi, Quetta Gladiators, Multan Sultans and Karachi Kings — have badly defaulted on this account.

Removal of Inzamam as player acquisition head raises eyebrows

“Lahore Qalandars is the only PSL franchise to have promptly cleared the bank guarantee money with the PCB,” reliable sources confirmed on Wednesday, adding that the other franchise owners have been constantly dilly-dallying with the board on the issue despite stern reminders.

“It seems that the PCB bigwigs, for some odd reason, have not been able to bring down the five PSL franchises to deposit the guarantee money which is among the primary clauses of their contracts with the PCB,” the sources said.

The sources further said while it was expected that the new PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani would be able to resolve the issue of outstanding dues of the five PSL franchises and could impress upon them to deposit the guarantee money at an early date, but that has not happened so far.

On another front, the cricketing circles have noted with concern the removal of national chief selector Inzamamul Haq from the PSL player acquisition committee on the basis of ‘conflict of interest.’

The player categories are decided prior to the PSL draft and Inzamam has been doing the honours in the past by virtue of his post as chief selector.

However, the sources revealed that several franchises had recently expressed their reservations about Inzamam heading the player acquisition committee on grounds that the former skipper has been a part of the Lahore Qalandars talent hunt programme which causes a conflict of interest and hence he should be kept away from the process.

The PCB, surprisingly, was quick to oblige after acknowledging the reservations of the franchises to form a separate three-member player acquisition committee which is headed by one Imran Ahmed Khan and includes two members of the national selection committee — Waseem Haider and Wajahatullah Wasti.

The knowledgeable cricketing circles have expressed their surprise over the appointment of Imran as the player acquisition head since they believe he does not have the credentials to hold the key position as he is neither a cricketer nor someone who has been closely attached with the game during the past.

It must be mentioned here that conflict of interest in the PCB is nothing new at all. Pakistan cricket team’s current head coach Mickey Arthur and bowling coach Azhar Mahmood are also part of Karachi Kings franchise but somehow the Board officials have turned a blind eye to that while promptly removing Inzamam on similar grounds.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2018