KARACHI: Fourth edition champions Quetta Gladiators on Tuesday released their retained players list 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, franchises were allowed to retain eight players, a rule that was in effect for the first 10 seasons.
However, as per the revised rules for PSL 11, teams were only allowed to retain a total of four players from multiple divisions, making the decision challenging ahead of the auction.
A total of 14 players participated in various categories. Platinum category includes Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Amir and Abrar Ahmed while Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Wasim Jr and Usman Tariq are listed in Diamond category.
The gold category features Khurram Shahzad, Haseebullah Khan, Khawaja Mohammad Nafe, Hasan Nawaz and Danish Aziz. Ali Majid was the only player in the silver category while Mohammad Zeeshan and Shamil Hussain were in the emerging category.
From these options, Gladiators retained Abrar Ahmed from the Platinum category, Usman Tariq from the Diamond category, Hasan Nawaz from the Gold category and Shamil Hussain from the Emerging category, while not retaining any player from the Silver category.
With the Pakistan Super League set to grow from six to eight teams, the upcoming edition will also mark a major expansion of the league. Hyderabad and Sialkot Stallions are new additions to the PSL family and will debut in the upcoming season.
After bidding 1.75 billion (approx. $6.25 million), the winning bidder was Mr. Fawad Sarwar took ownership of Hyderabad, thereby taking ownership of the new team.
Meanwhile, the franchise of Sialkot Stallionz was won by Mr Hamza Majeed who paid Rs. He topped the bidding for 1.85 billion, earning the right to lead the Stallions into their inaugural PSL campaign.
For non-readers, the 11th edition of the competition will begin on March 26 and run until May 3.
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