Pakistan’s premier cricket event stuttered to a disappointing end as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) failed to exercise its role as a regulator. PCB’s CEO, Wasim Khan has laid the blame at the doorsteps of the franchises – saying that PCB has held numerous matches during the pandemic, but the involvement of “other stakeholders” led to the breaches in the bio-secure bubble – however, the responsibility for enforcing COVID-19 SOPs on the franchises ultimately rests with the PCB.
“This is a collective effort and we all have to take responsibility for our actions and try to learn from these mistakes,” Wasim Khan said while trying to accept the failure of PCB. The PCB management has come up with the logic that it was the responsibility of the franchises to ensure COVID-19 SOPs, backing away from its responsibility to ensure the implementation of SOPs as the regulator.
Pakistan Cricket Board’s CEO Wasim Khan said that “PCB successfully completed all domestic tournaments and hosted South Africa without any issues.
He said, “franchises have invested a lot of money to make the PSL work, so there are always going to be lot of emotions, particularly in the first 24 hours. Any environment can only work if all stakeholders are on the same page. It is not the time to be fighting with franchises and blame each other. The bottom line is that is a collective failure and there has to be a sense of collective responsibility,” said Wasim.
“There is a lot of emotions right now as everyone is invested in the tournament and we fully expect that. Any environment can only work when all stakeholders are on the same page. How did we deliver our domestic tournaments so far? We had a perfect arrangement for the South Africa series.”
“With any SOPs for a biosecure bubble it takes partnerships, it takes discipline, it takes self-policing. And I think these are really important factors for us all to remember. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do it effectively enough hence we find ourselves in this situation today,” said the PCB CEO.
He further said that resources and efforts will be put in to make sure that the remainder of the Pakistan Super League is completed just like we completed the fifth season.
“We can create a window and we will explore it and make it work with the franchise,” he said.
He said this while addressing a press conference at National Stadium Karachi along with Babar Hamid, Director Commercial PCB and Medical Department Head, Dr Sohail Saleem.
He further said that this isn’t about blame game or who is responsible. This is a collective effort and we all have to take responsibility of our actions and try to learn from these mistakes.
“When players are affected and when players start to lose confidence in the biosecure bubble. Internationally it will make big news. Today is a difficult day for all of us as a lot of effort and resources have gone into conducting our last premier tournament. Yes we have postponed it but as a nation, we remain reslienet, as PCB we remain resilient along with the support of all franchises to complete the remainder of the PSL”.
Answering a question Wasim said that there will be trust issue for sure. Fans have supported Pakistan cricket in tough times and it will take some time to build that trust again but we will learn from our mistakes, we will all learn from our mistakes.
Babar Hamid said, This financial loss will be calculated later but right now this loss is for everyone including the fans, media persons, franchises and PCB. That will be seen later when we get back to drawing board.
