A total of 500 foreign and domestic players will be available for selection in Sunday’s Pakistan Super League player draft that in Lahore.
Top foreign names like Chris Lynn, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Shane Watson, Angelo Mathews, Mustafizur Rahman, Mitchell Johnson, Adil Rashid and Rashid Khan will among the players up for grabs (start: 14:00, UAE time).
The third edition of the PSL will also feature a sixth franchise in Multan Sultans with each franchise having a salary cap of $1.2 million for a squad of 20 players.
Teams have already retained nine players each from last season and the draft will see them pick one ‘platinum’, one ‘diamond’, one ‘gold’, two ‘silver’ and two ‘emerging’ players each.
The Pakistan board has stated it plans to hold a few matches of the third edition of the tournament in Lahore and Karachi in March next year, including the final.
According to reports, foreign players who sign PSL contracts will have to also sign a clause confirming their availability to play in Pakistan. They have apparently been offered an additional sum of $10,000 to 20,000 per match if they travel to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan left arm pacer Rumman Raees was appointed as vice-captain of the Islamabad United team.
“Rumman has come leaps and bounds from when we picked him up in the first PSL draft. And the way he has represented the franchise over the past two years made him the ideal candidate for this role,” United owner Ali Naqvi said in Lahore.
Also, former spin ace Saeed Ajmal was appointed as United’s spin bowling coach.
Talking about the latest appointments, head coach Dean Jones said: “We believe that Rumman is a future leader for our franchise, and more importantly, a future leader for Pakistan. We have been most impressed by him not only as a cricketer but as an individual, and we will try to develop him even further in both these aspects.
“Saeed is a great presence in the dressing room, and we wanted to make sure that he continued to be a part of it.”
HOW THE DRAFT WORKS
Five teams retained and traded a total of nine players apiece on October 5. New franchise Multan Sultans picked up nine players from the expansion draft.
In today’s draft, Lahore Qalandars will be allowed the first pick because according to the rules the team that finished last in the previous season gets the first pick. They will be followed by Islamabad United, Karachi Kings, Quetta Gladiators, Peshawar Zalmi and Multan Sultans.
A total purse of $1.2 million for each team for a maximum of 20 players in the squad.
‘Platinum’ category players will get between $140,000 and $200,000 while ‘diamond’ category players have a minimum price of $70,000. ‘Gold’ category carry a tag of at least $50,000. ‘Silver’ category players have a minimum price of $22,000 while ‘emerging’ get at least $10,000.
