Pakistan Super League (PSL) is a beggar’s (poor man is richer) version of Indian Cricket League (IPL). While PSL’s media rights went for $36 million to Blitz Advertising and Techfront in December 2018; IPL’s media rights were sold for INR 16,347 crores ($2.3 Billion)!
However, for a nation almost in bankruptcy, this is a big amount. And, India is the largest market for cricket in the world in terms of revenue earned. According to some estimates, 70% of all ICC’s revenues are generated from the Indian market!
That is the power of Indian market when it comes to cricket.
Until now, Pakistan Super League matches were being telecast in India via the DD Sports and many large websites were sharing the updates live (like they do for IPL). No more.
Per Mumbai Mirror, DSports has stopped the telecast of the matches with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, Cricbuzz – cricket content website – and Dream11 – fantasy cricket site, have also stopped carrying PSL.
On similar lines like D Sports, popular cricket news and score website CricBuzz has also suspended its news and sports coverage of the league. All the current scorecards and news articles related to this season of the league have been pulled down.
Fantasy Cricket Website, Dream XI too has followed the suit. It has stopped its fantasy games related to the PSL matches.
This will have a devastating impact on the whole viability of PSL.
Think of it – outside of Pakistanis, only the Indians would be able to relate with PSL due to the South Asian connection and language. If the Indians abandon the PSL in-toto; Pakistanis are not enough to make it viable. More so because cricket in India is made viable by the money spent by the sponsors. Indian corporate sponsors of the telecasts and advertisements on the ground have made cricket lucrative in India. If the Indian audience goes so do the Indian sponsors. And, honestly, if the Pakistani sponsors were that rich, they would have made Pakistani cricket viable.
The time is now to put the brakes from every side.
