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"IPL Is The Premier Competition": Billings Shuts Down Reporter Over PSL Comparison

Aakash Saini

Sam Billings at a press conference [Source: @mufaddal_vohra/x]Sam Billings at a press conference [Source: @mufaddal_vohra/x]

Sam Billings is currently in Pakistan to play the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2025 season for the Lahore Qalandars franchise under the leadership of Shaheen Afridi. The English wicketkeeper-batter also applied his name for the IPL 2025 season; however, the cricketer went unsold at the mega auction last year.

Recently in Karachi, in a bid to stir up a controversy, Billings was asked to compare PSL with the IPL by a Pakistani reporter. The 33-year-old straight up picked up IPL as the world’s ‘premier competition’ and claimed that other franchise T20 leagues are all fighting to become the second best in the world.

Sam Billings shut down Pakistani reporter

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is widely recognized as the best and the most competitive T20 league in the world. The Indian tournament also rakes in staggering viewership numbers, and is significantly profitable and lucrative for players and franchises alike, in comparison with other competing T20 leagues.

However, cricket fans in Pakistan often compare PCB’s PSL with the IPL. During a recent press conference in Karachi, a Pakistani reporter asked English wicketkeeper-batter Sam Billings if PSL was better than its Indian counterpart. Billings, in a seemingly straightforward manner, stated that IPL is the premier competition in the world, and all other T20 leagues like PSL, Big Bash and England’s The Hundred are simply trying to catch up to become the second-best in the world. He said:

“You want me to say something silly? It's hard to look past the IPL as the premier competition in the world, it's very obvious, every other competition is just behind, you know in England we are trying to do the same like PSL as the second-best competition in world, Big Bash too trying to do the same.”

Sam Billings recently punched out a 19-ball half-century in a match-winning cause for the Lahore Qalandars against Quetta Gladiators on April 13.

Billings, along with the rest of his Qalandars teammates, will now face Multan Sultans in match 12 of the competition in Multan on Tuesday, April 22.