Dubai, Sharjah are official venues for Pakistan Super League

The Pakistan Cricket Board has succeeded in securin Dubai and Sharjah as venues for the Pakistan Super League T20 event early next year. This comes at the cost of having to share the facilities with the organisers of the planned Masters Cricket League.

A source in the PCB told PTI that after renewed negotiations between the officials of the PCB's PSL secretariat and the Emirates Cricket Board it had been decided in principle that the inaugural edition of the PSL would be held in Dubai and Sharjah.

"The Masters Cricket League would also be held nearly simultaneously at the same venues with the PSL. For example if one day a PSL fixture is being held in Dubai the same day a match of the MCL could be scheduled in Sharjah," the source said.

He said that the PCB was deciding on the best time and still weighing the option of having the PSL in Doha, Qatar without having to share venues with the MCL.

"But the majority vote in the PCB is in favour of having the PSL in Dubai and Sharjah because of the cricket culture there, the large Pakistani and Asian expatriate community plus the fact that the UAE venues are like second home to the PCB which has been hosting its home series there since 2010," the source said.

He said there was also a chance that cricket enthusiasts might see both PSL and MCL matches on same day at one venue like Dubai.

The PCB is scheduled to officially launch the PSL and its logo in Lahore today at a glitzy ceremony and the source said an announcement about the number of overseas players who have been signed or given their consent for the PSL and the schedule of the league could be made.

The PCB is attaching a lot of significance to today's launch ceremony since the PSL had twice before been postponed due to various reasons.

Najam Sethi, who heads the PSL secretariat, said in an interview recently that Singapore based Repucom, a sports marketing, development and evaluation company of global repute, has partnered with the PCB in developing its financial and logistics approach.

-PTI