Cricket is the national pastime of Pakistan and the HBL PSL, with its successful marketing strategies and quality of the product, has attained the status of a mega sports event in the country. A few other sports like kabaddi and volleyball tried to emulate the model, but couldn’t achieve the desired results due to various reasons. In the world where sport seems to replace war as a measure of national ascendancy, the pressure on the government to promote sports at all levels is irresistible.

Sport has now become a major industry and a cultural preoccupation in the contemporary world. Cities and municipalities are increasingly using major sports events to re-image themselves, promote urban development and fund economic growth and regeneration.

Sport is a magic elixir that feeds personal identity while it nourishes the bonds of communal solidarity. The benefits accrue to the collective morale of city residents, especially when the home team is winning. Sports sociologists term these benefits as “psychic income” because those associating with teams are affected by the win and loss ratio of teams in terms of serotonin released, thus affecting the mood of the entire city.

The importance of sports events in the contemporary city may be placed in a wider urban context where it has been observed that cities have sought to become centres of consumption through the organisation of spectacle sports fixtures. Staging of major sports events like PSL is seen not only as a means of generating such consumption, but as an important way of symbolising the transition of the industrial city towards an envisaged role.

People worldwide frequently make judgements about the competency of city administration and its quality of life by extrapolating from snippets of information or from symbols. Thus, a sports team is a highly visible symbol and a franchise may be considered by some as a symbolic embodiment of the city as a whole.

Large cities view sports teams as an important piece of their overall cultural package. In many parts of the world people believe that no place can be considered a “Big Town” if it doesn’t have a professional team with whom locals can associate themselves.

This type of thinking was espoused by the mayor of San Jose, a US city, when she was trying to persuade the San Francisco Giants to move to her city. When the San Jose Sharks National Hockey League team commenced playing in the city in early 1990s, the city built a new arena for them in 1993. It was reported that it transformed the city.

During my recent visit to Lahore, I was pleased to witness the historic city branded in the colours of Lahore Qalandars, who are also the defending champions of 2023 PSL trophy.

Municipalities all over the world play a key role in promoting sporting traditions. This all happens when a strong local government creates a municipal department of sports & recreation which becomes the vital advisory body regarding sports matters to the city council. Though not in an ideal state, Karachi administrator Dr Saifur Rehman under the directions of Governor Sindh has launched Karachi city games in which 5000 players are participating in 42 different sports and local games.

However, in the absence of a definite national sports policy highlighting the roles of all stakeholders responsible to build a holistic sports culture, cricket franchises have taken the lead role in branding cities and associating the communities with the teams.

In PSL, six teams are representing six major cities of Pakistan. The interesting point to note is that the captain of Islamabad United, Shadab Khan, is from Mianwali. Karachi Kings is led by Imad Wasim, from Swansea Wales. Lahore Qalandars instead of any cricketer from Lahore is led by Shaheen Afridi, from Landi Kotal. Muhammad Rizwan, who hails from Peshawar, is leader of Multan Sultan. Babar Azam of Lahore is leading Peshawar Zalmi. Last but not the least, Sarfaraz Ahmad, hailing from Karachi, is captain of Quetta Gladiators.

PSL has a successful marketing and financial model and both PCB and PSL owners along with players are making good revenues through this joint venture. However, despite the drafting limitations of the tournament, the PSL teams must represent the culture of respective cities in terms of leadership and composition for its ownership and stronger affiliation of local population with the teams, thus making it a real success story.

More locals will turn up to stadiums to watch their icons if they have local affinity, and the city sports culture will thrive when teams will have two to three local players and the teams instead of players from other cities are led by the local lads. This also helps in bringing more sponsorship from local brands, thus generating more revenue streams on a sustained basis, and the media will have more stories to tell about the heroics of local players.

PSL is a beacon of light that besides earning handsome revenues can serve as a communal glue.

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