PSL bidding process would resume in two to three months

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that time constraint was one of the main reasons for cancelling the process to award wholesale rights of its planned Pakistan Super League (PSL).
A senior official told PTI that the bidding process would resume in two to three months and the plan was to now launch the T20 franchise-based event sometime in December, 2015.
"We have even found a proper window for the PSL in December and January 2015/16," he said.
The official who was involved in the bidding process dismissed fears that the second cancellation of the PSL would result in a loss of credibility of the event and PCB.

"Yes there is a strong argument for this but the fact is we didn't cancel the event this time, we just cancelled the process to award rights and we have explained this very clearly to both the affected parties who were involved in the PSL," he said.
The official said that time constraint was the major reason for cancelling the bidding process.

"We didn't even open the bids or the USD 3 million guarantees submitted to us by the two parties," he said.
Aman Foundation , a subsidiary of the Emaar group in UAE and the Haier group Pakistan, were the two parties who were interested in obtaining wholesale rights of the PSL for a 15- year period.

The official said the PCB had decided to hold PSL in January, 2015 in Dubai and started the bidding process in April.
"Unfortunately due to the litigations in the court involving the PCB and cricket the matter was delayed by at least two to three months before we could announce the bid committees," he said.
"We had even submitted an application in the court requesting the PCB be given permission to hold the process for sale of PSL."
This is the second time in two years that the PCB has cancelled the PSL. The first one happened in 2013 when Zaka Ashraf was chairman of the board which had even hired South Africa's Haroon Lorgat as a consultant for the project.

The official said that the board decided after much thought that it was better to put on hold the bidding process than to be forced to take hasty decisions which could lead to complications later on.
"Awarding the PSL rights for 15 years is a long-term objective and it is very important for us to know that whoever we award the rights to is capable of fulfilling all obligations.