By Admin 
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to conduct all its financial transactions with the PSL teams in Pakistani rupees instead of American dollar, raising questions about whether this will benefit the franchises or the PCB.
The actual brand value of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and its franchises is already shrouded in mystery.
Under the new evaluations of the existing six franchises conducted by independent foreign auditors, three franchises — Lahore Qalandars, Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi — have already renewed their contracts for the next 10-years without a fuss.
And this has led to questions in cricket circles of how notable the increases in the franchise fees under the new valuations for the next 10-years after the decision to conduct transactions with them in PKR.
According to sources, the increase could range from just 45 to 90% variables for the six franchises, while the PCB also intends to add two new teams in the league and will announce their names on January 6.
Back in 2016, when the league was launched, the PCB conducted its transactions with franchises in dollars and franchise rights were sold in dollars.
For example, Lahore Qalandars franchise fees went at $25 million for 10 years, i.e an annual franchise fee of $2.5 million to the PCB.
Rising dollar value in Pakistan
In 2016 the dollar rate was 105 rupees in Pakistan.
But in the next three years the dollar rate went up to 175 and by 2019 the franchises complained they were bleeding losses.
The reason was that while in the first year Lahore paid an annual fee of 26.5 crore rupees to the PCB under the 105 dollar rate by 2019 they paid 43.75 crores annual fees under the increased dollar rate of 175 rupees.
A similar situation was faced by the other franchises, and they pressured the PCB to reconsider the financial model. The PCB relented by first increasing their share in the central pool of revenue to 95% and agreeing to cap the dollar rate at 175 rupees.
After 2019 the franchises paid their franchise fees at the fixed dollar rate of 175 while in reality the dollar rate went up exponentially and is trading at 281 rupees at present.
The big question now is, with the PCB resorting to rupee transactions, will the franchises be paying more or less than they did in the first phase of 10 years?
If the PCB applied the current dollar rate the same 2.5 million dollars Lahore paid in first phase would calculate to around 70 crore Pakistani rupees annual fees.
The rumorus are that Lahore’s new franchise fees after evaluation is 66 crores but it is not confirmed as yet by the board.
One major problem being seen with the PSL is the lack of foreign investors, sponsor or foreign owners.
And add to that the cold ties between the most expensive franchise of the PSL, Multan Sultans (annual franchise fees of $6.35 million) and the PCB due to which apparently they have not got the renewal documents as yet.