Pakistan Super League is now considered by many as the greatest cricket league in the world, with a record of six franchises that have been to the semi-final and eight finals so far.
It has produced some truly great players over the years, including Shahid Afridi (2004), Asif Ali (2008), Saqib Bhatti (2009), and Sohail Tanvir (2010). While most leagues across the world have their super teams for each tier, no other league can claim this domination.
As the name suggests, Pakistan Super League was founded in Lahore with 10 teams across four divisions. Over the years the competition has grown to become a massive global tournament and an annual event that gets over 4 billion views every year.
While it’s hard to compare and contrast these two events, they are both amazing and deserve to be the biggest sport in the whole world. It has even been described as the “Hockey Empire of European sports”. Although there are plenty of issues between the two competitions, we shall try and look at one key factor in each competition that ultimately helps define them.
For those who are not familiar with Ipkim, let us make it clear from the start that this article will contain certain opinions and ideas expressed here.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the high level of rivalry between Pakistan and India. From 2000 for instance, the first match between them ended in a draw. Now on occasions, it seems like each team plays against another but either side tends to pick themselves up straight away. This rivalry has helped build the confidence of fans all over Asia that each country can beat the other country in any given game.
That said, there are still instances where Pakistan outclass India in recent times. There was no such incident between 2001-2002 when Pakistan came into the World Cup semi-finals in South Africa but in 2012-2013, during the ODI series in the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan took control of the innings 3-0. That particular encounter saw India win the toss and bowl, but within two days, Pakistan won the match 2-1.
Even though the two sides played competitively in the past, in our current time the two countries seem to be playing each other in the shortest format, meaning that each team plays only 8 matches a season. Since its inception, India has gone through many ups and downs with them winning or losing 5 times between 2004-2017. At this point, what you call the ultimate test is coming.
Is Pakistan Super League better than IPL?
If you take the latest survey of Pakistani fans at www.kpinsta.org, it shows that 67% of people believe that PPL is slightly superior to the IPL. Of course, to take things back to the beginning, some may say the two are quite similar with IPL being just seven fixtures a year while PPL is around 25.
However, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering how the two competitions evolved over the years. With a new format introduced in the early ’90s, it led to a rise in quality for both leagues. However, despite this progress, both leagues still struggle to stay above the top four, although it’s easier for the latter to be above.
The main difference between the two leagues is that IPL is spread over 16 cities and is often played in front of crowds whereas as you can see, Pakistan has had its share of struggles with spectators preferring watching online. Because IPL is not spread over different towns in Asia, if you want to attend the live streaming of the entire tournament, it would cost you about $700-800 depending on the venue. Unfortunately, the vast majority do not have that sort of money in their pocket.
PPL, on the other hand, is distributed differently throughout the nation with the highest number of franchises around Karachi and Lahore. Only 20 teams participate in the regular season, a total of 10 in the playoffs, with a few newcomers competing in the Super 12 (all from Lahore) and the knockout stages. Even more interesting though, the league hosts three home games annually, making it a lot cheaper for everyone to tune in to watch it.
The second area that makes the two leagues differ in terms of format is the host city. In IPL, stadiums fill up completely with fans since teams play in front of their hometowns whereas, in PPL, everything moves around because clubs represent the cities that they play in. One thing that has caught hold of the fans over the years, however, is the fact that even players can choose where they want to play. Currently, there are 11 teams in Lahore, 7 teams across Balochistan, and 6 in Islamabad. All these teams were selected by the previous government.
The last piece of news that goes into making the two leagues better is the introduction of local teams. With teams across Pakistan having never appeared in a World Cup before, cricket fans felt that the inclusion of smaller national teams would boost the pride of the teams and bring down the levels of expectation among the masses. Thus, after introducing local teams, why didn't another league start? When all Pakistanis were behind closed doors, the fans knew exactly who the players belonged to and could express their excitement with them. As a result, a plethora of smaller players started emerging in the league. Some of them are the ones who have made major contributions, like Sanam Baloch, Shahid Afridi, and Abid Ali. But some really good results from domestic teams were also shown, proving that the national team could produce results. For example, despite the tough competition against New Zealand, Pakistan’s batsmen went down by 38 runs in the 2019 edition of the tournament.
The conclusion? Despite having a host of problems and obstacles, both the leagues have done well to make changes to get better for players and coaches alike. Whether there’s a better format or a more exciting schedule, there’s no denying that both leagues have done their best to become a success. However, there are still some issues. Both the leagues will improve further, especially now that fans are getting accustomed to watching live-streamed matches. We would be sure that this trend will continue to grow as international football will soon catch hold in the Middle East too, which might bring forth an even bigger crowd. So, we’re very hopeful that both leagues will reach the pinnacle with one day or the other.
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