Pakistan Junior League: concerns remain, but Ramiz's vision is taking shape

The buzz following Pakistan's dramatic win over Afghanistan at the Asia Cup had yet to dissipate, but early the following morning in Lahore, the PCB was back at work. There was a media scramble as the event got underway just before noon local time. The board chairman, Ramiz Raja, was due to speak, with an extensive player draft to follow. The whole event was live streamed, with the PCB bombarding social media channels and WhatsApp groups with regular updates.

The PSL draft, right? It's that time of year, after all.

Wrong.

This is the Pakistan Junior League (PJL) draft, a first-of-its-kind league. It's Ramiz's brainchild, an event that sees Under-19 players from around the world compete against each other in a T20 league, one of a raft of innovations that signal Ramiz's desire to leave his mark on the PCB.

In a sense, that's not especially unique. Every PCB chairman has tried to ensure a legacy that outlasts them, though how successful those attempts have been is another matter.

Ehsan Mani and Wasim Khan, PCB chairman and chief executive, respectively, before Ramiz, enshrined constitutional changes to make complete overhauls legally more challenging. But, of course, even they only managed that by overhauling the system they had found, revamping the domestic structure despite fierce opposition, and removing board of governors members who did not support them to get the job done.

Any notions those changes might survive a change in administration proved quixotic as soon as Ramiz was appointed chairman. It became quickly apparent Ramiz wasn't the delegating kind, as Mani had been on operational affairs with Wasim. In his first press conference, amid a raft of promises that laid out his vision, Ramiz pledged to organise the world's first junior international T20 league.

Few expected it to come to fruition - other ideas, like drop-in pitches, faded away. Initially, the PCB conceived it to be a franchise-style system, with private investment funding the league; the cost of running it at the PCB's expense was an unwelcome prospect. It was exacerbated because in the year since that announcement was made, Pakistan has seen its economy come under extreme strain, with the value of the rupee going into freefall.

The most uncharitable might call it a white elephant of a vanity project, while the converted portray it as an investment into Pakistan's future T20 talent. And there's little doubt of the value the PJL brings to the table.

For young cricketers, it represents a unique platform to showcase their skills in front of an audience they could previously only dream of, not to mention the concomitant monetary rewards. For the PSL, the PJL is likely to serve as a free audition weeks ahead of the PSL draft, ensuring any young, emerging cricketers they pick based on PJL performances has league T20 pedigree of some sort. The quality of the cricket on offer will in all likelihood be superior to much of what the players are generally accustomed to, so even if its detractors call it misguided, the tournament still provides a pathway which leaves its participants better off.

But even if the PCB's critics conceded those points, the ripostes have already been prepared. For one, it isn't yet clear what the extent of the financial stress the PJL now places on the PCB, but it's likely to be considerable. The PCB initially claimed there had been "an overwhelming and encouraging response from potential sponsors, partners and entrepreneurs", but were quickly forced to abandon the franchise model after failing to find bidders willing to match base prices in the market.

Miscalculating the sincerity of that interest meant the PCB had to take control of the six teams. A roadmap to the sustainability for this league is yet to be presented, which effectively tethers the PCB into taking on a similar financial burden every year this league is held. That makes the PJL vulnerable to scrapping the moment cost-cutting becomes unavoidable, because as things stand, it appears difficult for the PJL to sustain itself financially.

All this attention for the PJL has left the PSL's stakeholders feeling jilted, too. There is no indication yet of when that league's draft - and whether it will be a draft or some draft-auction hybrid - will actually be held, never mind any public announcement about available players. That leaves the franchises less able to plan effectively for the upcoming season, or sponsors to effectively gauge the level of commercial interest. The wisdom of ignoring an established, money-making brand for an unproven one has been questioned - not least at a time when two brand new, cash-rich T20 leagues are about to start in the UAE and South Africa.

Those problems may be unavoidable, but an odd unforced error might further dampen enthusiasm. The PJL coincides with the senior team's T20I tri-series in New Zealand and the opening stages of the T20 World Cup, naturally stripping attention away from the PJL. The national side, naturally, attracts attention whenever it plays, and while it might have been tricky to slot the PJL into a vacant window, the effort would likely have been rewarded with an increase in viewership.

But, for the PCB's charismatic current chairman, the temptation to leave something tangible by way of legacy could well have proved tempting enough to override other concerns. There might be a revolving door at the head of the PCB, but in the PJL, Ramiz can market a real, concrete project he envisioned and brought to term almost single-handedly, in spite of the concerns and drawbacks that threatened to derail it.

The financial picture might look bleaker but watching actual young cricketers playing high-quality cricket in a world-first league will always have more cut-through with the public than numbers on an accounting sheet. A new chairman might come in and decide to roll back or entirely do away with the PJL, but it's unlikely to be a choice that proves popular with anyone but the finance department. Few people in Pakistan cricket understand that better than Ramiz.

There might be egos as well as visions at play here, but when, in a month's time, young cricketers from Pakistan and around the world - 24 from nine different cricket boards including Associate players, which is progressive - take each other on in a T20 league, they'll be watched by large numbers, and paid handsomely for it. And who, really, could begrudge that?