Former PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja's dream project, the Pakistan Junior League (PJL), was discontinued by the new Najam Sethi-led management citing huge financial numbers costing the project, leading to a storm in Pakistan cricketing circles.
The inaugural season of PJL was held in October last year, with the project costing PCB PKR 1 billion, of which 440 million was listed as match fees for players and staff. It featured huge names such as Javed Miandad, Viv Richards, Shahid Afridi, and Shoaib Malik to name a few as team mentors.
After the news broke out, Raja lashed out at the PCB and called it 'vendetta politics' and tweeted: "It is so sad that PJL has fallen to vendetta politics and rolled back even though 7 of the kids made it to PSL 8 emerging category and 3 are part of Pak vs NZ as reserves.”
Reacting to Raja’s tweet, one of the fans on Twitter questioned Ramiz Raja whether paying such huge player salaries in the league was justified or not.
He commented, "it was a great idea, but do you not think paying $22,000 to u19 kids is too much? I think PJL should still be played, but we can manage the costs better."
However, shockingly one of the players to feature in the PJL, captain of Gwadar Sharks, Shamyl Hussain replied to the tweet revealing that he and some other players have not been paid for the tournament yet.
He said: "We never got paid haroon bhai."
The new PCB regime is planning on reviving the junior series on a home-and-away basis to help with a pathway for high-performing teenagers. Also, the PSL franchises have been asked to include a U19 player in their Emerging Player Category in the playing XIs.
