What time do PSL 2023 play-offs start and how can you watch it in UAE?

The Pakistan Super League has entered its final stretch with four teams still in the hunt for the 2023 crown.

The last phase of the round-robin stage was a run-fest of epic proportions as scores of 240 and more were chased down with relative ease in Rawalpindi, while a target of 263 was also almost achieved. Jason Roy, Rilee Rossouw and Usman Khan blasted whirlwind centuries within a span of four days to catapult the PSL to the top of batsmen-friendly tournaments.

However, the tournament has returned to Lahore for the final leg, with bowlers expected to dictate terms once again. Multan pacers Abbas Afridi and Ihsanullah are the top-wicket takers of the tournament with 22 and 20 wickets, respectively.

They will be hoping to continue their good run as Multan get a chance to qualify directly to the final when they face title holders Lahore Qalandars in the first qualifier on Wednesday.

Multan's star Pakistan player Mohammad Rizwan is the top run scorer in the tournament with 483 runs from 10 innings, making his team the favourite to go all the way this week.

PSL 2023 remaining fixtures

Wednesday, March 15

Qualifier 1: Lahore Qalandars v Multan Sultans, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore (6pm UAE time)

Thursday, March 16

Eliminator: Islamabad United v Peshawar Zalmi, Lahore (6pm)

Friday, March 17

Qualifier 2: Loser of Qualifier 1 v Winner of Eliminator, Lahore (6pm)

Sunday, March 19

Final, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore (6pm)

Multan Sultans fast bowler Ihsanullah celebrates the wicket of Lahore Qalandars' Kamran Ghulam during the PSL match at Multan Cricket Stadium on February 13, 2023. AFP
Multan Sultans' Ihsanullah bowled the fastest spell in PSL history against Quetta Gladiators on Wednesday. AFP
Multan Sultans pacer Ihsanullah celebrates the wicket of Lahore Qalandars' Kamran Ghulam. AFP
Multan Sultans' Ihsanullah after taking the wicket of Quetta Gladiators batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, February 15, 2023. AFP
Ihsanullah celebrates the wicket of Quetta Gladiators' Abdul Bangalzai. AFP
Multan Sultans' Ihsanullah reacts after a fielder drops a catch against Quetta Gladiators. AFP

How to watch matches in the UAE

PSL 2023 matches can be seen live on Starzplay in the UAE. Match highlights are also available on PSL's official YouTube channel.

Prize money

The winning team will take home a grand prize of 120 million Pakistani rupees ($450,000). The runners-up will receive 48m rupees ($180,000).

What next?

It's back to international cricket for the top Pakistan players. Shadab Khan will lead Pakistan's new-look T20 team in the three-match series against Afghanistan after selectors rested five senior players, including all-format captain Babar Azam, as part of its workload management.

Fast-bowlers Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf, along with Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman, will also miss this month's series in the UAE. All three games are scheduled to be played in Sharjah on March 24, 26 and 27.

The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.

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Gertrude Bell's life in focus

A feature film

At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.

A documentary

A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.

Books, letters and archives

Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”