Lahore Qalandars co-owner Sameen Rana vows to continue with PDP despite criticism

KARACHI: After being vindicated in PSL 7, Lahore Qalandars co-owner Sameen Rana vowed to continue with their Players' Development Programme (PDP).

Sameen expressed disappointment over criticism they faced for their PDP initiative in an interview with Geo Super.

"We digested a lot of criticism just for the sake of cricket talent. A lot of people blamed us for establishing a parallel cricket system. Many of them said we are doing this for fame," he lamented. 

"But we just believed in our process and, Alhamdulillah, it paid off for us in the form of Haris Rauf, Shaheen, and many other talented players," he said.

"PDP will not stop with this PSL's victory. This programme will run for a long time to produce quality players. We have signed some valuable partnerships with clubs in Australia and England. These partnerships have helped us secure the future of our talent, the talent which needs a platform to shine as our players did," Sameen concluded.

Why was Fawad Rana missing?

Sameen also revealed the reason behind his elder brother Fawad Rana's on-screen absence from the Pakistan Super League (PSL) for a couple of years.

Fawad, who remained in limelight for his emotions and love for his team during the first five PSL seasons, was highly missed during the last two seasons of the extravaganza, especially when his team Qalandars won the long-awaited trophy this year.

"Fawad Bhai is here with the team, he was with us when we won," Sameen said in the exclusive online interview. "But his appearance on the screen was reduced as we wanted to make our players the real face of our franchise," the owner shared.

"Our PSL victory completely belongs to Shaheen Shah Afridi and his players, not me, not Fawad and Atif Bhai. These players are the real face of Qalandars and we want to promote them," he maintained.

Phones, cash prizes for players

Sameen reiterated the philosophy behind giving away precious gifts to players and management during the PSL 7.

"I know about the hype," Sameen responded to social media gossip. "A lot of people texted me about the videos which we shared on social media. Basically, the idea was to make this league look bigger. PSL is our brand, and the brand looks bigger when you do something out of the box. We decided to honour and acknowledge players like this," he said.

"We gave away phones and prizes not to show off but just to motivate our players. Let me tell you, a healthy competition was built up within our team and players started putting more effort into performance so that they can get an iPhone," Sameen shared.

The players-friendly owner asked other franchise owners to come forward and reward their players. "Qalandars will definitely take another step forward next year. But, I want other owners too to come forward and do things like this to make PSL a bigger brand," he emphasized.