Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

At the outset I apologise for taking your busy time on the subject matter.

However, due to the sensitivity of the issue and urgency of the nature of the situation, created out of the extremely strange resolution, adopted by the Board of Governors of the PCB, in its last meeting held on November 8, 2016 (to register PSL as an independent Private Limited Company which will be a separate entity run by its own governing board), a grave crisis has been created, which can only be resolved by your immediate and direct intervention.

In this regard, kindly allow me to explain below all the facts for your kind perusal:

i) Nowhere, I repeat nowhere in the Test playing countries, T20 Cricket League is a separate company from its cricket board. The separation of PSL from the PCB is not a decision in the interest of Pakistan cricket, but may benefit a few individuals.

ii) In all Test cricket playing nations, only one cricket board is directly responsible for regulating all types of cricketing activities in their respective countries. If in Pakistan, two competing organisations are allowed to control cricket, it will very soon demolish the structure and the edifice of the PCB, along with the domestic cricket.

iii) In Pakistan domestic cricketing structure and standard of the game is already suffering badly, due to the acute shortage of funds; because no international cricket team has visited Pakistan, to play a complete series, since 2009. Under such grim circumstances for cricket in Pakistan, the fans are shocked at the hara-kiri of the BOG of the PCB, in allowing its cash cow (PSL) to detach itself from the PCB and that too without any plausible reasons.

iv) The shortage of funds is so acute with the PCB that it cannot even spend money to provide playing practice in domestic games on imported Kookaburra cricket balls; and PCB has even requested to the ICC to create a fund for some financial assistance to the PCB.

v) All of us remember that when top Pakistani players were not allowed to play for the national team (as they had opted for joining Kerry Packer’s World Series team), what happened to our national team’s performance. Here also a situation is clearly apprehended in which, players, coaches and management staff will opt to go towards more lucrative PSL, even if they were to take an early retirement. This situation will badly affect on Pakistan teams future supply line of quality manpower.

vi) Cricket leagues in all countries are considered cash cows for the respective cricket boards. What is the justification to cannibalise PCB by just putting forward the reason of politics? The best way to minimise politics in any organisation (read PCB) is to strictly implement the policies of transparency and accountability and zero tolerance in "conflict of interest" situations.

vii) When even the audit report of the inaugural PSL event has not been submitted to the BOG of the PCB, on which tangible and solid reasons it has decided to form a separate company for the PSL?

In this regard, what are the answers to the following questions:

1. Is creating permanent and highly lucrative jobs for a few individuals, who may be foreseeing the end of their tenure in the PCB, in near future, the primary reason behind making PSL a separate company?

2. If the decision to make PSL a separate entity was taken because of the failure of the first PSL or non achievement of the desired and expected results, then why not to first have the accountability of the concerned personnel of the PSL management, who were wholly and solely responsible for running and managing the PSL, with zero interference from either the chairman PCB or anyone from the PM office? And if at all the formation of an independent PSL company is inevitable; such failed persons must not be allowed to ruin the new company from the outset.

3. However, if the first PSL is found to be a successful event (after receiving the financial and management audit reports separately) then a very logical question that arises is what was the requirement of taking such a hugely damaging action against the PCB, whose funds and full resources were used in such a callous manner that almost forty million rupees were spent on just one PSL dinner in Lahore?

4. Those who say that the Indian Supreme Court has asked the BCCI to form a separate body for IPL, are not giving the following additional information:

a) The BCCI is registered under the societies Registration Act. PCB is a statutory body formed by an Act of the GOP and currently under ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination. The constitution of the PCB and its amendments are always issued by the GOP through official gazette notifications.

b) Even after the orders of the Indian Supreme Court (ISC) the BCCI has not gone for the formation of a separate IPL body; and a legal battle is still on, between the BCCI and the ISC.

c) Some people in PCB are in a rush for a separate PSL company even when accounts of its first event has not been audited, but BCCI which started IPL in 2008 and has since played nine tournaments, has still not separated IPL from the BCCI.

Mr. Prime Minister, from the above-mentioned narration of facts, you can vouch for yourself that PCB is not in competent and safe hands and has utterly failed to safeguard even its own corporate interests and thus needs your immediate surgical strike to stem the rot, before it is too late to act.

Best Regards,