Several England players have moved teams ahead of the 2018 Kia Super League

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Mar-2018Several England players have moved teams ahead of the 2018 Kia Super League (KSL). Sarah Taylor has left Lancashire Lightning for Surrey Stars, with Alex Hartley going the other way, while Tammy Beaumont moves to Southern Vipers from Surrey.There has also been a straight swap between Loughborough Lightning and Yorkshire Diamonds of Jenny Gunn for Beth Langston.The changes are overseen by the ECB and aimed at keeping a balance between the six sides, ahead of the third edition of the T20 competition. Each of the teams will still be able to recruit their own overseas players.”The latest player movements are to ensure the best balance between the six sides and to maintain a fair and competitive competition with the over-arching principle of trying to ensure a best versus best competition,” KSL general manager Jo Kirk said.”We want the KSL to continue to go from strength to strength in its third year. Attendances rose by 44% last year and we’re looking forward to even more fans attending games this summer, hopefully culminating in a sold-out Finals Day down in Hove.”This year’s KSL begins on July 22 and features an expanded group stage, with the teams now playing each other twice. The top three will then go on to Finals Day at Hove on Bank Holiday Monday, August 27.

Wrecker-in-chief Trent Boult, meanwhile, especially pleased with inswinger that accounted for Ben Stokes during epic collapse

Andrew McGlashan in Auckland22-Mar-2018England coach Trevor Bayliss admitted to being embarrassed by his side’s technical failings against a slightly swinging ball, which resulted in a collapse of such momentum that the team was unable to stop it.When the scoreboard read 23 for 8, the lowest total in Test history of 26 was under threat, until Craig Overton hauled them over that figure and beyond their own previous lowest in Tests of 45. England were skittled before lunch in 20.4 overs, in scenes reminiscent of their own dismantling of Australia at Trent Bridge in 2015.Trent Boult, who could barely keep the smile off his face in the post-day press conference, claimed career-best figures of 6 for 32 while Tim Southee bagged four – they were the only two bowlers needed to clean up a feeble England.”I thought we made a lot of mistakes today with our footwork,” Bayliss said. “The ball was swinging a little bit but when the ball’s full, it’s as simple as it gets, you’ve got to play forward. A lot of our guys were out today from behind the crease to fairly full balls.”We’ve been on the other side of scores like that and it’s euphoria. This is the opposite. Someone sneezes and the rest of the guys catch a cold don’t they? Everyone was making the same type of mistakes – feet not moving properly, decision making not as it normally is.”Someone makes a mistake at the top of the order and under pressure sometimes that happens. Unfortunately, today it was our turn. It wasn’t good enough.”Asked specifically if he was embarrassed by the capitulation, he said: “Certainly, and I probably wasn’t the only one in the England change-room either.”The slump started in the fifth over when Boult found Alastair Cook’s outside edge, and it didn’t stop. The last-wicket stand of 31 between Overton and James Anderson added more than the other nine combined.”Not in our wildest dreams did we think we’d win the toss and get them out in the first session. It was good fun,” Boult said. “To not let the foot off the throat and not let the pressure off them. I saw the scoreboard of 23 for 8 at one point, was pretty surreal.”While Bayliss had pinpointed failings against the swinging ball, the movement had been far from extravagant: for example, analysis by CricViz showed it was less than half the average amount of swing than had been on display during that 2015 Trent Bridge Test.”We just tried to pitch the ball up,” Boult said. “In all honesty, I don’t think it swung that much. The cliche of it just doing enough is what happened. It was nice to see a couple of nicks carry through but to disturb the woodwork, always a nice feeling as well.”Boult, who admitted to initially struggling to push the ball as full as he wanted due to the volume of white-ball cricket he has been playing, collected three of wickets by bowling batsmen, with the scalps of Joe Root and Ben Stokes, both beaten by inswingers, providing special satisfaction.”The ones when you are working towards a plan and it literally happens in front of your eyes is probably the best feeling,” he said. “Very good fun. To see the zinger [bails] light up put a smile on my face and it’s very satisfying.”But I don’t want to sit here and sound like I’m a magician of any sort. That one [Stokes] probably felt a bit better than the Joe Root one. One of those feelings, one of those days, one of those mornings… Just very cool to be out there.”

Their batting slumped after Kane Williamson’s half-century, but 151 was plenty for the best attack in the IPL

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu29-Apr-2018
5:47

Agarkar: Rahane’s lack of desperation proved costly

After Rajasthan Royals limited Sunrisers Hyderabad to 151 for 7 on a two-paced pitch in Jaipur, their debutant legspinner Ish Sodhi said the total was “a little under par”. Having successfully defended 118 and 132 in their previous two matches, however, Sunrisers had plenty to play with and strangled another chase after Royals had made a sound start. Their sixth win in eight games took Sunrisers to the top of the points table.The Sunrisers batsmen could have made their bowlers’ task a lot easier had they not collapsed after Kane Williamson’s masterful 63 off 43 balls, on a pitch where every other batsman struggled. Williamson had a control % of 100 against every Royals bowler except K Gowtham and Jofra Archer, who had combined figures of 8-0-44-5. Sunrisers lost 5 for 44 in the last seven overs of their innings.The Royals captain Ajinkya Rahane batted through the chase, but he never looked comfortable during his half-century. Royals needed 80 runs off 60 balls, and 50 from 30, but the acceleration never came. Basil Thampi recovered from an expensive first over to successfully defend 20 in the 20th.Old-school Williamson, all-new Hales?
With their attack performing so impressively, Sunrisers decided to forego a sixth regular bowling option – Mohammed Nabi – and bring in firepower at the top of the batting order: Alex Hales. But with the ball not coming on to the bat and Gowtham finding slow turn, Hales chose to bide his time.Dhawan looked to force the pace, though, and played-on to a non-turning ball from Gowtham for his third successive sub-15 score since returning from an elbow injury. Enter Williamson: the bad-pitch batsman. Some balls bounced chest high while others fizzed through around the knees. Williamson was reprieved on 11, when Archer found extra bounce and the outside edge, but Rahul Tripathi dropped another straightforward catch at slip. Williamson was ultimately dismissed on 63 by a shooter from Sodhi.In between, Williamson sussed out the conditions expertly. He swatted Sodhi’s googly to the midwicket boundary and then dismantled Jaydev Unadkat in the 12th over. Anticipating slower cutters from Unadkat, Williamson bent his back knee and laced a brace of boundaries over extra cover. The 21-run over also contained a dinky paddle and a streaky outside edge. The last ball – nurdled through midwicket – brought up a 32-ball fifty.Archer, Gowtham at it, again
Hales’ dismissal, however, sparked a collapse. Gowtham had Hales holing out to backward point for 45 off 39 balls, and in the next over, Sodhi had his New Zealand captain caught behind with a googly that kept low outside off. Archer then took care of the lower-middle order to dash Sunrisers’ hope of a recovery. He bowled Shakib Al Hasan with a pinpoint yorker before removing Yusuf Pathan and Rashid Khan with short balls. Sunrisers had looked good to push towards 180 at one stage, but fell well short.The awesome Sunrisers attack does it again
Bhuvneshwar Kumar not available? No problem. Sandeep Sharma found swing with the new ball to pin down the Royals openers Rahane and Rahul Tripathi, who was bowled for 4 by a skiddy delivery. The in-form Sanju Samson, however, lined up his Kerala team-mate Thampi and took 17 runs off the fourth over. Just when it looked like Samson could turn tables on the Sunrisers attack, Siddarth Kaul bowled a knuckle ball to have the batsman splicing a catch to short midwicket for 40 off 30 balls.With Thampi proving expensive, and with no Nabi or Deepak Hooda to go to, Williamson needed to find a couple of overs from somewhere, and so he gave Yusuf his first over of the season. With his second ball, Yusuf bowled Ben Stokes, and then Rashid Khan dismissed Jos Buttler for the third time in three T20s to leave Royals needing 56 off 36 balls with six wickets in hand.Sandeep, Rashid, and Kaul did not concede a boundary in the next three overs and the asking rate rose to 12. Rahane slog swept Rashid for a massive six over square leg, but that was the extent of acceleration from the Royals captain.The equation came down to 27 off 12 balls, and Kaul conceded only six in the 19th over because of some incredible catching and fielding. Manish Pandey leapt on the edge of the long-off boundary to catch the ball and drop it back into play before going over the rope, saving four runs. Then Wriddhiman Saha leapt high and to his left to catch an edge from Mahipal Lomror that otherwise might have gone for four. And then Shakib saved two runs on the sweeper boundary with some nifty footwork.With 20 to defend in the last over, Thampi conceded only nine, and while Rahane could not be dismissed he did not find a gear high enough to hurt Sunrisers.

Having cut salaries last year, a now-financially stable SLC has announced a raise of 34%, after posting profits of about USD 13.5 million last year

Andrew Fidel Fernando22-May-2018Having cut salaries last year, a now-financially stable SLC will return player payments to just above their previous levels. Some national players had had their earnings trimmed by as much as 30%, when SLC moved to a performance-based model of remuneration in 2017. But the board has now announced a raise of 34%, after posting profits of about USD 13.5 million last year. Match fees would also be increased for the 2018-19 season, an SLC release said.”Since SLC has made good financial gains during the concluded financial year, we thought it is appropriate to give a pay raise for the players,
as they are making a major contribution towards the growth of Sri Lanka cricket,” board president Thilanga Sumathipala said.Thirty-three top players have received contracts under the new pay scheme, with those players split into five tiers. The highest per-match earners will be ODI captain Angelo Mathews, Test captain Dinesh Chandimal, and seniors Rangana Herath, Dimuth Karunaratne and Suranga Lakmal, having received ‘Category A’ contracts. T20 captain Thisara Perera, meanwhile, has been awarded a third-tier ‘Category C’ contract.The notable exception from previous years’ contract list is Lasith Malinga, who has not been picked to play for Sri Lanka since September last year. Although he has repeatedly stated his availability for Sri Lanka, and has also played in domestic T20 competitions, the selectors, and now the board, have ignored him.Sixteen players, many of whom are either on the fringe of the national team, or even those being strongly considered for selection (such as Lahiru Thirimanne), have been included on the fifth tier of the list. Somewhat confusingly, this is called the “Premier Category”.

Contracts list

Category A: Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Rangana Herath, Dimuth Karunaratne, Suranga LakmalCategory B: Upul Tharanga, Dilruwan PereraCategory C: Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwella, Dananjaya De Silva; Kusal Perera, Thisara
PereraCategory D: Akila Danajaya, Dushmantha Chameera, Asela Gunaratne, Danushka Gunathilaka, Nuwan PradeepPremier Category: Sadeera Samarawickrama, Roshen Silva, Lahiru Thirimanne, Lahiru Gamage, Vishwa Fernando, Lakshan Sadakan, Jeffrey Vandersay, Dasun Shanaka, Kaushal Silva, Shehan Madushanka, Lahiru Kumara, Malinda Pushpakumara, Amila Aponso, Wanidu Hasaranga, Isuru Udana, Dilshan Munaweera.

Clarke batted for over five hours to defy a Notts attack that was missing Stuart Broad, who didn’t return to the field for the last two sessions

ECB Reporters Network28-Jun-2018
ScorecardJoe Clarke’s third century of the season heroically salvaged a draw for Worcestershire on the final day of their pink ball County Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.Clarke batted for over five hours to defy a Notts attack that was missing Stuart Broad, who didn’t return to the field for the last two sessions.Clarke finished with an unbeaten 177, made from 214 balls with 23 fours. He was supported in partnerships of over an hour by Ben Cox, Ross Whiteley and Ben Twohig, who made a career-best 35.Kevin Sharp, Worcestershire’s coach, said: “I spoke to Joe Root three years ago and told him he’d bat with a guy called Joe Clarke one day and I think that will happen. He’s a high class performer, you’ve seen that today.”Luke Fletcher, 3 for 54, and Harry Gurney, with 3 for 91, were the mainstays of the home attack.The visitors, who had been set the challenge of chasing down a victory target of 462 or, more realistically, batting through a minimum of 113 overs, resumed on 43 without loss at the start of the day.They added 17 runs from the first two overs but then lost Daryl Mitchell, tickling Gurney down the leg side to Tom Moores for 33.Martin Guptill fell into Nottinghamshire’s trap, when on 29, punching into the hands of silly mid-off to give young pace bowler Matt Milnes a maiden wicket on the ground.Moores left the field after being struck by a delivery from Luke Fletcher and handed over the gloves to Riki Wessels, who immediately pouched an edge off Tom Fell, from the bowling of Chris Nash.The fortunes of the game were never more closely magnified than in the early overs of the second session. Jake Libby, who scored a century in Nottinghamshire’s second innings, experienced the highs and lows of life within the space of a few minutes.Libby pulled off one of the most outstanding catches you could ever wish to see when he dived horizontally to take Brett D’Oliveira one-handed at backward point, off Gurney.The same bowler then thought he’d conjured up a repeat when the new arrival, Ben Cox, tamely chipped to the same fielder, who grassed a simple dolly.Like Nash on the first day, Clarke went into the tea break unbeaten on 99 but reached his 12th career hundred from 157 balls, soon afterwards.Whiteley’s rear-guard effort – 10 from 60 deliveries – came to an end when he nicked the new ball behind but Twohig, in only his third first-class match, came of age in the testing twilight conditions of the final hour.When he fell to Fletcher, with four overs remaining, hope briefly returned to home ranks but Charlie Morris flat-batted his way to the end.Although there was obvious disappointment in the home camp, Nottinghamshire reaped 12 points from the contest and remain second in the Division One table, 22 points behind leaders Surrey, having played a game more.Worcestershire remain bottom, with their nine points bringing them within 14 points of seventh-placed Yorkshire.

Adam Griffith will now serve in a dual capacity as head coach of Tasmania and Hurricanes

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Jul-2018Gary Kirsten has resigned as the coach of Hobart Hurricanes due to personal reasons after just one season with the Big Bash League club. Kirsten, who was appointed last year on a two-season contract, will be replaced by former fast bowler and current Tasmania coach Adam Griffith.”I have made a decision for a specific personal reason to resign from my role as head coach of the Hobart Hurricanes,” Kirsten said. “It is an unfortunate circumstance as I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the club.”Kirsten, who took over the role from Damien Wright, had a promising first season with the Hurricanes, taking them to the final after they had finished in the bottom half of table in the previous three seasons. Griffith was also a part of the Hurricanes side last season, as Kirsten’s assistant.”I have no doubt the team will once again be extremely competitive, and under Adam Griffith and George Bailey they will enjoy strong leadership,” Kirsten said. “I want to thank everyone involved on the Hurricanes Program for their support and hard work, and I wish the players well for the upcoming season.”Griffith, who is now the head coach of both the Tasmania-based men’s teams, said he would try to assume a balanced approach to keep both sides in sync.”It’s a big honour – even if a somewhat surprising one – to now become the BBL Hurricanes head coach, and caps off a pretty exciting last 14 months for me since joining the Tigers as their head coach in April last year,” Griffith said.”Now that I’m head coaching the bulk of both male squads year-round in Hobart, we can really grow some effective long-term plans and ‘mix and match’ our training for all T20, limited-overs and Shield four-day formats. We don’t just want to go one better than last season’s BBL final and Sheffield Shield final – we want to be finals bound every year with the Hurricanes and Tigers.”

Opening batsman M Vijay and left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav were dropped from the squad

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Aug-20181:57

‘Vijay’s exclusion is slightly perturbing’ – Chopra

Batsmen Prithvi Shaw and Hanuma Vihari have been called up to India’s Test squad for the final two matches in England. Opening batsman M Vijay, who was out for a pair at Lord’s and then dropped from the XI at Trent Bridge, and left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav, whose selection in the second Test had raised eyebrows, have been dropped.It is understood that Vijay’s poor form – six single-digit scores in his last 11 innings – has prompted the team management to think about grooming a younger opener. At 34, Vijay’s international future now looks uncertain.Kuldeep has been sent back home to play for the India A team in two four-day matches against Australia A in Visakhapatnam. The decision is believed to be made because of the conditions in England, where one spinner in the XI has usually sufficed. India coach Ravi Shastri told the media at the end of the Trent Bridge Test that offspinner R Ashwin, who was suffering from a hip injury, would be fit in time for the next Test in Southampton starting August 30. There is also left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja in the squad.”Ashwin will be okay,” Shastri said. “The fact that he bowled 20-25 overs clearly suggests it [the hip injury] is not that bad. This break will be ideal for him. If there was a Test match starting in three days’ time, then it would have been a problem.”1:39

The Prithvi Shaw story

The 18-year old Shaw captained India to the Under-19 World Cup title in February and has since been part of India’s A teams. He also has an IPL contract with Delhi Daredevils. Vihari, meanwhile, has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket, and the 24-year old averages 59.79 from 63 first-class matches. No one currently playing first-class cricket has a has a better average.Both men are in good form as well, having each struck centuries against South Africa A in Bengaluru at the start of August. They were also part of the A team in England last month, when Shaw was especially effective as an opening batsman, scoring 188 in a four-day game against West Indies A. That is his highest score – he has seven centuries in all – in 14 first-class games since making his debut for Mumbai in January 2017. Vihari began his career with Hyderabad but has now moved to Andhra, a team he now captains. Among his 5142 runs are 15 hundreds and 24 fifties, including a highest score of 302 not out.Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was ruled out of the first three Tests with a lower-back issue, was absent from this squad as well. Having aggravated the injury while playing the third ODI against England in July, he has been undergoing rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. BCCI’s release announcing the squad did not contain any updates on the fast bowler’s fitness.India squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hanuma VihariIndia A squad for four-day matches against Australia A: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Mayank Agarwal, R Samarth, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ankit Bawne, Shubman Gill, KS Bharat (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem, Kuldeep Yadav, K Gowtham, Rajneesh Gurbani, Navdeep Saini, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohammed Siraj

Surrey appear unstoppable on their title march after deposing of the defending champions in three days

Matt Roller at Chelmsford06-Sep-20181:55

Surrey make it eight and promotion race hots up

ScorecardNot since 1999 have Surrey won eight Championship games on the bounce, and their current run certainly has a once-in-a-generation feel to it. That run owed much to the dual spin threat of Saqlain Mushtaq and Ian Salisbury; this time, it has been all about the seamers.On the third day at Chelmsford, led by Morne Morkel and the evergreen Rikki Clarke, they bowled Essex out for the second time in just over three sessions to go 43 points clear at the top of the Championship, and look certain to secure the pennant before the final round of games. Ravi Bopara offered staunch resistance with an unbeaten 81, but despite being some way short of their bullish best, Surrey’s pace attack was simply too good.For some time this fixture had been earmarked as a final test of Surrey’s credentials. Away from home against the reigning champions, it should have been a tough challenge; instead, they cruised to victory with a full day to spare.Surrey have proved over the course of the year that Championship cricket requires a squad rather than just a team. They have used 20 players, and that Tom Curran, who did the early damage, was playing for just the second time in this competition this season, showed their impressive level of depth.Curran was fearsome in his opening burst, running in with his collar up and his hair slicked back. He trapped Varun Chopra lbw early, before beating Tom Westley’s outside edge time after time and eventually ending his difficult stay at the crease by sending his off stump cartwheeling.It seems a long time since Curran made his Test bow at the MCG back in December, and his youngest brother Sam has overtaken him in England’s long-form plans this summer. But Tom remains a fine bowler at the Championship level, and his first spell of the day was a reminder of his worth in red-ball cricket. He bowled with hostility and an extra yard of pace, and found enough movement off the seam to keep Essex guessing.The middle-order destroyer was again Clarke. He made good use of a helpful pitch to remove Dan Lawrence and Nick Browne, both caught in the slips off back-of-a-length balls that lifted sharply, before Rory Burns’ stunning catch in the gully accounted for Ryan ten Doeschate to leave Essex five down going into lunch.At that point, the only question was whether or not Essex could make Surrey bat again, and thanks to Bopara and some old-fashioned tail-end slogging from Jamie Porter and Sam Cook, they did. Bopara was the only Essex batsman throughout the game to look comfortable at the crease, as he rotated the strike well and scored fluently both sides of the wicket. When he brought up a 76-ball half-century, he had hit just three boundaries; it was an innings that highlighted the importance of ticking over against quality bowling.But in truth, Bopara’s knock served only to delay the inevitable. Morkel returned to remove Simon Harmer for a pair, and then ended Porter’s fun after a couple of lofted boundaries off Clarke, before Bopara and Cook added 18 to leave Surrey needing two.The impact Morkel has had on this Surrey team cannot be overstated. His Championship debut was the first game of this eight-match winning run, and it would be brave to suggest that is in any way coincidental. He now has 42 wickets at 14.57, and has terrorised Division One batsman up and down the country. He did not bowl as well as he can here, but a couple of sharp bouncers to Michael Pepper and Porter showed that his pace has by no means dropped.Surrey now go to New Road next week to play bottom club Worcestershire in the knowledge that a win will effectively, if not mathematically, seal the title with two games to spare. On the basis of this run, they will be worthy winners.

Another defeat for Sri Lanka was mitigated by the knowledge that the game had turned on a couple of key moments

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Pallekele20-Oct-2018Sure it’s another Sri Lanka loss, and sure they are ruing their mistakes yet again, but at least this time it is specific moments that lost Sri Lanka the game, rather than overs upon overs of incompetence. Dasun Shanaka, whose run-a-ball 66 did the most to propel Sri Lanka toward respectability, pinpointed two of the instances in which his team had let the match slip.The first of these was his own run-out, he said. Having just struck two towering sixes off Olly Stone in the 42nd over, Shanaka seemed as if he was just beginning a death-overs cannonade. But then, disaster. Thisara Perera mis-hit a ball into the leg-side, more or less directly to the fielder ranging close at midwicket. Shanaka took off from the non-strikers’ end, perhaps especially eager to regain the strike because by now he was seeing the ball so well. He had run about halfway down the pitch before he realised Thisara had correctly turned down the run, and was run out trying to regain his ground at the non-strikers’.”There was no run there,” Shanaka said. “I came out too far. Normally I have this habit of coming down the wicket about two feet whenever a shot is played. It’s a fault that I have that I need to rectify – it’s not Thisara’s fault.”When I went in we were 102 for 4, and I played my normal game without any pressure although we had lost wickets. If I had continued batting longer we could have got a result in our favour. If had stayed with Thisara for the 50 overs, we could have got around 290-300.”Sri Lanka ‘s other costly mistake came when they were bowling, in what would turn out to be the final few overs of the game. Joe Root mis-hit a sweep off the bowling of Dhananjaya de Silva, and although the resulting top-edge was caught at short fine leg, Sri Lanka had too many men outside the circle – Kasun Rajitha having failed to come in from the boundary to mid off.Umpire Lyndon Hannibal called a no-ball, denying the hosts the wicket. Had Sri Lanka reduced England to 112 for 3, the Duckworth-Lewis-Steyn par score would have reduced almost all the way to that total, meaning they could then have applied more pressure on Eoin Morgan and the new batsman as the rainclouds gathered.”If we had not made a mistake of having five fielders outside the circle and got Root’s wicket it would have been a close game,” Shanaka said. “We could have built on the pressure from there and forced another mistake.”For England, meanwhile, Morgan dwelt on the frustrations of a rain-hit series, and spoke about the many unquestionable positives for his side for what seems like the millionth time after arriving in the country. What choice does he have, really? England really have been that dominant.But there was an area in which he felt his side had let themselves down in this particular game. No fewer than three clear-cut wicket opportunities were spurned, with a tough catch being dropped, an easy stumping being missed, and a run-out chance going astray. Elsewhere, he felt, the ground fielding has also been sloppy.”The fielding wasn’t good,” Morgan said. “It was average. It’s definitely something we can improve on. We were better in the last game but today we weren’t anywhere near as good as we should be.”

One of their main demands is to be exempted from government taxes, at least until they break even on their investments

Umar Farooq28-Nov-2018Three years into its existence and with none of the teams close to making profits, PSL franchises are urging the PCB to revisit its revenue-share model ahead of the fourth season. One of their main demands is to be exempted from government taxes, at least until they break even on their investments.Five franchises – the sixth one, formerly Multan Sultans, is currently without ownership – met with the PCB a day after the draft in Islamabad, where they were unanimous in their concerns about the league’s financial model. A three-member committee including Javed Afridi, owner of Peshawar Zalmi, Salman Iqbal of Karachi Kings and Ehsan Mani, the PCB chairman, has been formed to find ways to make the PSL more “sustainable” and gain tax breaks.The federal government as well the provincial government of Punjab have asked the PCB to make an official request for exemption in writing, one which will be put in front of the cabinet for a decision. Should they decide not to offer any relief, ESPNcricinfo understands the PCB could register the PSL in Gilgit-Baltistan, a northern province where they could take advantage of laxer taxation. Afridi revealed that registering the league as an offshore company is also an option.Over the last couple of seasons, franchises have raised concerns about the amount of tax they have paid on top of their franchise fees and other operational expenses. The first set of commercial and sponsorship rights deals the PSL signed up when it launched have now ended, and with enhanced deals now being inked in, as well as the scare caused by Multan Sultans’s financial meltdown, the remaining five have sensed this is the time to push for a greater slice of the pie.”Especially after Multan Sultans, we all are concerned about the league’s sustainability,” Afridi told ESPNcricinfo. “All eyes are on the PSL because this league is going to pave the way for other sports in the country. But with this model we are afraid we cannot go any further.”All five franchises came in together in the national spirit and spent a lot of money for the best interest of the country but for how long are we going to bear the losses? We are actually sucking money from our parent companies and are not even close to breaking even. We need a roadmap with a model which is more sustainable.”There should be parameters that should be laid down with tax exemption for sports because in future we will also have a hockey league and there should be a national sports policy to encourage investors to come forward. We have been paying 16% sales tax to the provincial government and 10% as witholding tax to the federal government without making profits. We met with finance minister Asad Umar last week and he seems to be very passionate about the game. They sought some time to revert back to us and we are hopeful this year there should be a permanent resolution to our problems.”The financial model adopted by the PCB in 2016 offers equal shares from a central revenue pool to all franchises, despite the difference in franchise fees. The two most expensive franchises – Karachi Kings and Lahore Qalandars, sold for USD 2.6 million and USD 2.5 million respectively per year – have argued that the revenue shares should be on a pro rata model, reflecting the expense of the franchise fee. Quetta Gladiators pay USD 1.1 million per year as their franchise fee, as comparison. In theory, however, both Karachi and Lahore should have greater commercial opportunities, based as they are in the two biggest cities in the country.The five franchises have also asked for an increase in their revenue shares. Afridi confirmed that each of the five franchises are operating at losses since the inaugural edition in 2016. For the first three years, the PCB put 85% of the PSL’s media rights revenue, 50% of the title sponsorship rights money, and 50-60% of the gate money into a central pool, which was then shared out equally among the franchises.Another bone of contention is tied to the falling value of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar. According to the agreements signed in 2016, franchise fees have to be paid in dollars – at the time it was signed, the exhange rate was PKR 105 to the dollar. Over the last year, as Pakistan’s economy has slowed down, it has shot up to PKR 134. The franchises want to peg the rate or pay in Pakistani rupees at the same rate when the contracts were signed.In 2015, the PCB had sold the first five PSL franchises for USD 93 million for a ten-year period. Karachi was the most expensive, with the ARY media group shelling out USD 26 million for ownership. Lahore was sold for USD 25 million, Peshawar for USD 16 million, Islamabad for USD 15 million and Quetta for USD 11 million.PCB’s new title rights deal with HBL, at USD 14.3 million, is nearly three times bigger than the last deal in 2015. But the renewal is pegged at the same dollar rate signed three years ago, an option not offered to franchises.