Ramiz Raja, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the name of the majority of its cricket stadiums will be changed due to new sponsorships signing. The board is looking for new sponsors and has clarified there are no politics behind changing the names, but only commercial reasons.
It must be noted board’s major emphasis, during the conversation, was Gadaffi Stadium Lahore. And, Crircrew understands Pakistan’s historic venue is the first in the lane in renewing the name. However, PCB chairman, MR. Ramiz Raja clarified it is not going to be Gadaffi ‘only’ but PCB is eying on other stadiums, including the National Stadium, Karachi.
As soon as the new sponsors for Gadaffi will be found, the specific sponsor will have permission to pick any name for the stadium of its own choice. Notably, it was named as a tribute to Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi in 1974. To note, the Libyan president addressed Lahore’s crowd during the OIC conference after which the stadium was renamed as a tribute to Gaddafi.
Raja, talking to media, confirmed,
“We acquired the services of YouGov to estimate the brand worth of our stadium, and how much sponsorship deals would be worth,”
“That’s not just true of the Gaddafi Stadium, but also the NSK and others. We’ve been working towards this for a while, and the response from sponsors has been satisfactory. Once we finalize a deal [for Lahore], the name Gaddafi will go completely, with a sponsor’s name replacing it, ”Ramiz Raja
In the recent developments of Pakistan Cricket, the PCB chairman also announced a modification in finances through replacing the PSL draft system with the PSL auction in the short course. He understands the league will be competitive and generate more revenue to be in the IPL bracket.
