LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced Saturday that it has ended its franchise agreement with Schon Properties Broker LLC, the owners of Pakistan Super League (PSL) team Multan Sultans over its failure to pay the team’s annual fees of $5.2 million on time this year.
Multan’s team was bought in 2017 for a 8-year period by Schon, a Dubai-based real estate company owned by Pakistan-origin tycoon Asher Schon. The annual fees made it the most expensive team in the competition, doubling the $2.6 billion per annum paid by ARY Group’s Salman Iqbal for Karachi Kings.
However, according to news reports in the UAE, Schon’s financial problems have been compounded by some of its top projects such as Dubai Lagoons and funds having been seized by the city’s Dubai Land Department (DLD) in August this year to protect the rights of the company’s investors from Schon depositing their money in escrow (guarantee) accounts. Pending payments are said to be amounting up to $1.9 billion.
With the Schon agreement terminated, the franchise’s rights have been transferred back to the PCB, which will be in charge of the player and coaches’ contracts. It will be participating in the player draft on 20 November to select the players who will probably join the likes of Shoaib Malik, Kumar Sangakkara, Kieron Pollard and Imran Tahir. Despite their presence, the team failed to make it past the group stages in its debut season.
On an interim basis, the team will be referred to as ‘The Sixth Team’ in the PSL until the board finalises the new winner of the franchise rights through a public tender process. The winner will be allowed to pick the city and name of the franchise.
“While this is an unfortunate turn of events, we have to ensure strict adherence to contractual obligations for the well-being of Pakistan Super League. We wish Schon Group well with their future endeavours. “I want to reassure our partners – franchisees, sponsors, players, coaches and fans – that the Pakistan Super League will take place as planned. Our preparations are in full swing starting with the PSL Draft in Islamabad. The 2019 edition of the PSL will be a memorable one with as many as eight matches including the play-offs and the final scheduled to take place in Pakistan.” PCB chairman Ehsan Mani was quoted as saying in a joint press release with Schon.
“It has been a privilege being a PSL team owner over the past year. I am proud of the support Schon has always extended to Pakistan cricket and current affairs notwithstanding, will continue to passionately support it.” Schon Group founder and former Multan Sultans owner, Asher Schon said.
However, Multan’s exit is said to have no impact on the PSL’s commercial viability as the league’s title sponsorship rights have already been sold for a record 1.5 billion PKR (Pakistani rupees) or $11.6 million for the next three years, a 33% jump from the previous value of 1 billion PKR ($7.45 million).
PSL Season 4 begins in the UAE with the first game on 14 February 2019.
