Indian Premier League is certainly one of the most popular tournaments of the world and since its inception in 2008, it has gained immense popularity as cricketers from almost all the cricketing nations come to play in this league. What makes IPL more special and different from other leagues is the fact that the Indian cricketers play only in this league as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) doesn’t allow them to play in other leagues.
However, many times we have seen that some people compare IPL with Pakistan Super League (PSL) which started in 2015. While IPL had 8 teams till now, from this year there will be 10 teams fighting for the title and PSL has 6 teams competing to win the trophy. The total number of matches played in IPL is around 70 while in PSL, the total number of matches played is 34. If we talk about the prize money given in both the leagues, this year’s PSL winner Lahore Qalandars was given a prize money of PKR 80 million which converts to Rs 3.40 crore in the Indian currency but the prize money of IPL is four times more of PSL’s prize money as the winner of IPL 2022 will get a huge amount of Rs. 20 crore as the prize money.
Well, there are many other factors which are brought in debate by those who feel that PSL is better than IPL and some time back, the former England cricketer Michael Vaughan made a tweet in which he called PSL the best league.
Michael Vaughan’s tweet read, “The Pakistan Super league has it spot on… High quality players… Fewer games than other tournaments making it a few weeks shorter… It’s leaves you wanting a little bit more at the end… Other tournaments don’t… #Pakistan”
The Pakistan Super league has it spot on … High quality players … Fewer games than other tournaments making it a few weeks shorter … It’s leaves you wanting a little bit more at the end … Other tournaments don’t … #Pakistan
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) February 23, 2022
Though Michael Vaughan didn’t take the name of any other league, it was easy for the Indians to understand that he was targeting IPL as he has always been critical of the Indian cricket.
Now Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja has opened up on this debate and in his opinion, PSL can’t give competition to IPL as the cricketers from the whole world come to take part in the league and the Indian players are available in IPL only which makes it the best and the strongest league of the world.
Usman Khawaja is a part of the Australian team which is touring Pakistan after almost 24 years and for him, playing in Pakistan is special as it is the country where he was born. Khawaja’s parents shifted to Australia few years after his birth and this is Khawaja’s first international tour to Pakistan.
So which league is better in your opinion – IPL or PSL?