PCB pours cold water on Multan Sultans’ hopes of being declared PSL 2020 winners

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has rejected Multan Sultans’ suggestion of being awarded the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2020 title, and made it clear that the new champions will be decided once the rest of the tournament is completed.

The PCB officials and franchise representatives, as per a report in Daily Express, held a video conference on Wednesday to bounce off ideas on what to do with the tournament, which was postponed indefinitely last month due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Since Multan Sultans had topped the round robin stage, they had been pushing for them to be declared the champions – an idea the Ali Tareen-owned franchise’s representative pushed again in the meeting.

The PCB officials led by COO Salman Naseer, however, poured cold water on the Sultans’ hopes, telling them that the board plans on resuming the tournament in order to avoid the financial cost arising from the loss of broadcasting and gate monies.

The board representatives said that they are looking to find a window, possibly in November or December on either side of the series against Zimbabwe.

In case a three-day window is found, the PSL 2020 would revert to the original playoffs format but if only two days of play is possible, the amended version of two semi-finals and a final will be played.

When told by Multan rep that as per PSL rules the team at the top is to be declared the winner, PCB COO said that that was “misinterpretation of the law and that the rule applied only if the winner could not be found”.

Furthermore, COO Naseer told Multan Sultans that PSL rules do not say anything about a pandemic postponing the event.

At one point, the idea of tournament prize money being donated to coronavirus relief fund was also floated. However, some participants shot down the idea, saying that that was the players’ privilege and the board or the franchises could not make the decision for them.

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