The much-blighted Pakistan Super League (PSL) will finally take off in February 2016 in the UAE, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced after a meeting of its Governing Board on Saturday.

The franchise-based PSL, based on the same format as the Indian Premier League, was first set to begin in 2008-09 but was shelved on several occasions hitherto on the account of prevailing security situation in Pakistan.

According to a PCB official present at the meeting on Saturday in Lahore, the cricket board had finally conceded that it would not be able to host the PSL in Pakistan and its temporary home, the UAE, had been finalised as the venue for the event.

PSL, the official said, would only be successful with the participation of foreign players and their reluctance to visit Pakistan had left the board with no choice but to organise the league abroad.

Rumours of the UAE being finalised as the venue for the PSL surfaced this week with Sports 360 quoting a senior PCB official as saying that they had already hired big-name consultants Repucom to help with organising the event. Repucom works with sports federations and clubs and its clients include the English Premier League, UEFA and FIFA and it has reportedly suggested that the inaugural PSL be a five-team only event.

The meeting of the Governing Board on Saturday was also called to discuss the national team's shambolic whitewash against Bangladesh this year as part of a review to improve its performance.

Pakistan were humiliated during their neighbour's April-May tour this year, which saw them slump to their lowest ever ranking in the ICC one-day international table of ninth after losing the one-day series in a 3-0 rout.

The defeat -- accompanied by another in a single Twenty20 international -- put Pakistan's participation in 2017 Champions Trophy in England in doubt as only the top eight teams will compete.

According the source, however, there was no concrete decisions taken in the review of the Bangladesh disaster.