KARACHI: Multan Sultans do not want to retain any players from their previous squad ahead of the historic Pakistan Super League (PSL) 11-man auction to be held on February 11.
For the first time in league history, the player selection process has undergone a major overhaul, replacing the traditional draft system with an auction-based model.
Earlier, franchisees were allowed to retain eight players – this was in place for the first 10 seasons.
However, under the revised rules for PSL 11, teams were allowed to retain a maximum of four players in different divisions, providing owners with tougher decisions ahead of the auction.
A total of 18 Multan Sultan players were placed in various categories. Captain Mohammad Rizwan in the Platinum category, Usama Mir, Iftikhar Ahmed and Usman Khan in the Diamond category.
The gold category features Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Hasnain, Faisal Akram, Akif Javed and Dayab Tahir. Yasir Khan, Amir Barqi, Mohammad Junaid, Humayun Altab, Ali Imran, Jahanzaib Sultan and Ubaid Shah were in the silver category while Shahid Aziz and Mohammad Zulfikar were in the emerging category.
The Sultans confirmed their decision via social media platform X, announcing that they will go into the auction with a full purse.
“Multan Sultans PSL players will enter the auction with zero retention and a full USD 1.6 million purse,” wrote the franchise.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced five out of six bidders for the much-anticipated auction of Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise Multan Sultans ahead of the historic 11th edition from March 26 to May 3.
According to the cricket board, its bidding committee went through a “thorough and transparent” evaluation process, which included five bidders who were “technically qualified” to participate in the team bid, with the venue and date to be announced in due course.
The development comes two days after sources suggested Ali Tareen, the franchise’s former owner, is keen to regain ownership of the 2021 champions.
Sources say that Tareen, who decided against renewing the ownership contract after the 10th edition of the marquee league due to differences with the PCB, has decided to participate in the team’s bid.
Notably, the PCB last month formally invited bids for the franchise by issuing an advertisement to attract interested parties.
The deadline for submission of documents for technical proposals has been fixed till January 30.
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