PSL franchisees haven't shown keenness in signing local players

Local support has always played a key role in T20 leagues. A sublime example of the same can be Sachin Tendulkar representing Mumbai Indians or Sourav Ganguly representing Kolkata Knight Riders. However, the same hasn’t been a case in Pakistan’s domestic T20 league, the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The franchisees haven’t considered this aspect while picking their teams.

With 20-22 cricketers in each unit, a majority of the players picked do not share any relation with the province the team represents. The Multan Sultans squad is a prime example of the same. Shoaib Maqsood is the lone player who hails from Multan. While the likes of Shoaib Malik, Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir and Junaid Khan are known faces in Pakistan cricket, but they don’t belong to Multan.

Lack of local flavour

The same is the case for Peshawar Zalmi. Other than a couple of young cricketers hailing from Peshawar, none of the big names have any relation with Peshawar. The likes of Mohammed Hafeez, Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali and Kamran Akmal, all belong to different centres.

The situation is even worse for Islamabad United and Quetta Gladiators. They hardly feature any player from their respective city. While one skipper Misbah-ul-Haq belongs to Faisalabad, the other one Sarfaraz Ahmed hails from Karachi.

However, if there is one franchise that has a known number of locals in their squad, it’s Karachi Kings. Shahid Afridi who was born in Khyber Agency, he has played in Karachi since his childhood days. The other members hailing from the city includes Khurram Manzoor, Tabish Khan, Hasan Mohsin and Saifullah Khan Bangash.

Proved irrelevant in the IPL

However, the issue of locals not playing in their city franchisees shouldn’t be regarded as an argument. In the IPL, we’ve seen MS Dhoni being adored by the masses while playing for Chennai and Virat Kohli for Bangalore instead of Delhi.

The third edition of the Pakistan Super League is scheduled to commence on the 22nd February. While the group stage would be played in Dubai, the playoffs and final are slated to be played in Lahore and Karachi respectively.