Pakistan plan IPL equivalent

Pakistan's players have not been a part of the IPL since its inaugural season, but the PCB has plans to launch their own equivalent of the Twenty20 tournament, though they have admitted it will not be possible to host it in Pakistan. Instead, they want to host the tournament in Dubai, where Pakistan have played one-day internationals against Australia and South Africa, and the latter in a Test match.

Sultan Rana, the chief of PCB's domestic cricket department, told Pakpassion.net the plans had been in the pipeline for the last two years but the board had to delay it because of the attack on Sri Lanka's cricketers during their tour of Pakistan in March 2009.

"We first considered the idea a couple of years ago," he said. "The documents were complete and we were all set to go, but the attack on the Sri Lankan team meant that we had to shelve all of our plans at that time

"I recently went to Sri Lanka during the World Cup and spoke to many other countries' board representatives, but apart from Sri Lanka they are reluctant to send their players to Pakistan. So, that presents a problem for us. We simply cannot host the tournament in Pakistan if we want to attract the top players."

The IPL was also hosted abroad in its second season, when the tournament was shifted to South Africa after security concerns arising from the Mumbai attacks in December 2008 meant it could not be staged in India. Rana was confident Pakistan's board could do something similar.

"What we are trying to do is to organise a competition in Dubai. This idea was discussed in the past and has very much been in our plans and is still on the table. I'm sure we (PCB) can organise this tournament, which will run along the lines of the Indian Premier League."