The first-ever player auction for the 11th edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is currently underway in Lahore, with the eight franchises now bidding on fast bowlers.
Last month, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that the upcoming season of the country’s premier cricket league would adopt an auction model, replacing the previous draft system.
David Warner goes to Karachi Kings
The second round began with Barbadian cricketer Kyle Mayers at the base price of Rs1.1m, who went unsold after no bids were made.
New Zealand’s Colin Munroe went unsold as well. Karachi Kings bagged Australian batsman David Warner at Rs79m after a round of back-and-forth bidding with Peshawar Zalmi.
South African batsman Rilee Rossouw was sold off to Quetta Gladiators for Rs55m.
Islamabad United bags all-rounder Faheem Ashraf
The auction began with bidding on all-rounders, starting with Faheem Ashraf at the base price of Rs42m, with Islamabad United putting in the final bid at Rs85m.
The second all-rounder to be auctioned was Imaad Wasim at Rs42m, followed by Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan Miraz at the base price of Rs1.1m; however, no bids were made by any of the teams.
All-rounders Hussain Talat, Asif Afridi, Danish Aziz, and Muhammad Zeeshan at the base price of Rs1.1m received no bids as well.
At the outset of the ceremony, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) PSL Salman Naseer addressed the audience.
“When the HBL PSL X ended, and the euphoria died down a little, and we looked ahead at the path in front of us, all commercial contracts had come to an end…monumental challenges lay ahead,” he said.
“PSL and PCB team have burnt out midnight oil day in and day out to get us where we are today,” Naseer said.
PCB, in a statement issued today, said that over 800 players have registered for the auction.
In January, the cricket board shared the base prices for players, with the top bracket set at Rs42 million (platinum), followed by Rs22m (diamond), Rs11m (gold), and Rs6m (silver and emerging).
The cricket board said the minimum incremental bid for each base price would follow as:
- Rs250,000 for bid amounts under Rs11m
- Rs500,000 for bid amounts under Rs22m
- Rs1m for bid amounts under Rs42m
- Rs1.5m for bid amounts above Rs42m
“The franchises are free to bid higher than the above-mentioned minimum incremental bid for each base price,” the PCB said.
Each squad will have a “minimum of 16 players and a maximum of 20 players per franchise”, while the number of foreign players would be five to seven, depending on the squad size.
PCB said that it would be mandatory for the franchises to include a minimum of three and a maximum of four foreign players in the playing XI.
Furthermore, it said that the teams would also be required to have a minimum of two uncapped Under-23 players in the squad and one in the playing XI.
The cricket board said, “Players either retained or picked in the HBL PSL 11 Players Auction will be engaged for two-year contracts with their respective franchise teams. After the HBL PSL 11, the franchise teams will be able to retain a maximum of seven players for the 12th edition of the tournament.”
“Following the HBL PSL 12, there shall be a grand auction whereby each franchise is allowed a maximum of five retentions. Any released player will return to the player auction pool,” it added.
PCB said that the franchises would also be entitled to directly sign one foreign player for the upcoming season, who has not played in the previous edition.
“The franchise team’s purse of Rs450m would be extendable to Rs505m to include the directly signed foreign players.”
“The PCB will also contribute towards the procurement of elite foreign players,” the statement said.
The tournament is scheduled to be held from March 26 to May 3. The forthcoming PSL will also feature two new franchises — Hyderabad and Sialkot — raising the total number of teams to 8.
