To save the Pakistan Super League (PSL), the T20 enterprises’ owners will have to carry out a similar act. They will have to find ways and means to take it out of the UAE and stage it on home soil. The sooner they do that the better it will be for PSL which is facing an existential threat because of a spot-fixing scandal that refuses to go away. Instead the scandal which began with the provisional suspension of Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif at the start of PSL’s season 2 last month has snowballed into a major issue that even put the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the FIA at loggerheads.

I have my reasons when I say that the PSL should be held in Pakistan. I’m not talking about a token game or two like the final or the opening match. I’m talking about the entire league, from start to finish. I know it’s a herculean task considering the fact that life in Lahore came to a standstill when the PSL final was staged at the Gaddafi earlier this month. But it’s a goal that has to be achieved.

I’ll take you to the Conrad in Dubai. It’s the day after yet another sensational PSL game at the Dubai International Stadium where one of the title contenders snatched defeat from the jaws of what seemed like certain victory. It wasn’t the first such game in the league’s second season that saw a series of last-over finishes, one after the other.

It’s early afternoon and the Conrad is buzzing. There are people all over the place. I see Zain (not his real name) standing in the lobby, surrounded by a group of men and a couple of girls. The men are carrying a few bags while the girls keep taking selfies. Zain is one of the young Turks making their bones in the PSL. Nobody knew him before PSL’s second season but now everyone wants a selfie with this boy who hails from a modest background, born and raised in a little-known part of the rural Punjab. Now, life at the Conard is completely different from what you might experience growing up in a village back home. Here, you rub shoulders with the likes of Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels, big players, even bigger party boys. There is a festive atmosphere at the hotel. It’s not very different from the Lotus Casino because once you enter you don’t want to leave especially if you have never experienced this kind of high life before. Zain, you could tell, is in a daze. He receives the bags from the men and hugs from the girls and walks back towards the elevator. The bags could be filled with some samples of batting gloves. Maybe there are just T-shirts in them but they could be full of expensive gifts, even cash. The girls could be ordinary fans, or maybe the means to a future honey trap. The point is that it’s pretty evident that Zain is an easy target for fixing mafias. And he is not the only one. The PSL is full of Zains, something that was aptly underlined when the league’s corruption scandal broke out. For many of the local kids, PSL in the UAE is a fantasy world. It is time that they are dragged out of it.

It’s not that a PSL edition held entirely at home will get automatically shielded from fixing mafias. Lahore, too, is something of a happy hunting ground for bookies. It has its own fair share of temptations. Karachi isn’t any different. But it is home and it’s where our players belong. It’s where the PSL belongs.

The question, however, is whether a full PSL season on Pakistani soil is even possible. It certainly isn’t possible if you want the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Brendon McCullum to be a part of it. Whatever measures you take and whatever incentives you offer, the Pietersens and McCullums of the cricket world won’t agree to come and play in Pakistan at least not in the near future. So be it. If we can live with the idea of having a PSL final in Pakistan with or without overseas stars, then we should also be able to live with the idea of having a full PSL season on home soil with our without prominent foreign players. We should decide, once and for all, that the PSL should take place in Pakistan. Then we should talk and convince as many overseas players as possible to come and play here. The likes of Darren Sammy and Marlon Samuels responded to our call and maybe they will be willing to come and play in Pakistan again. The list of T20 mercenaries is growing and if we tried hard enough each of the five franchises can attract a sizeable list of overseas players for PSL 3.

Najam Sethi and Co managed a big breakthrough when they successfully launched the PSL back in 2016. Now, their target should be to bring it home. Because that’s the only way this league can be saved.