PSL 2024 is just around the corner and all the preparations for PSL’s new season to begin with glitz and glamor are in full swing. In the same way, the teams and squads are finalized by the owners and the franchises in the PSL 9 Auction and Draft. For the 9th edition scheduled in different cities of the country from February 13 to March 19 next year, the players are decided on the draft model instead of an Auction.
PSL consists of franchise-based teams with players from different countries. This year there is a top list of players who have joined PSL on massive contracts. Instead of operating as an association of independently owned teams, the league is a single entity in which investors own and control each franchise.
You can watch PSL 9 on Watch PSL 2024 Live on PTV Sports
PSL 9 Auction And Draft- All the Details
PSL Draft 2024 is expected to be held on 13 December 2023, so franchises have to pick players from the draft only.
This year PCB gave the auction model to franchises to attract the top international cricketers from all over the world, but franchises rejected the auction model. Six teams will be participating in the PSL 9 Draft this year.
| Team | City/Province | Owner | Home Ground/Venue | Founded | Captain | Coach |
| Islamabad United | Islamabad, Capital Territory | Leonine Global Sports(Ali Naqvi & Amna Naqvi) | Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Islamabad | 2015 | Shadab Khan | Azhar Mahmood |
| Karachi Kings | Karachi, Sindh | ARY Group(Salman Iqbal, CEO) | National Stadium, Karachi | 2015 | TBD | Peter Moores |
| Lahore Qalandars | Lahore, Punjab | Qatar Lubricants Company(Fawad Rana, MD) | Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore | 2015 | Shaheen Afridi | Aaqib Javed |
| Multan Sultans | Multan, Punjab | Alamgir Khan Tareen | Multan Cricket Stadium, Multan | 2017 | Mohammad Rizwan | Andy Flower |
| Peshawar Zalmi | Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa | Haier Pakistan(Javed Afridi, CEO) | Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar | 2015 | Babar Azam | Daren Sammy |
| Quetta Gladiators | Quetta, Balochistan | Omar Associates(Nadeem Omar, Director) | Bugti Stadium, Quetta | 2015 | Sarfaraz Ahmed | Moin Khan |
PSL 2024 Auction Date and Time
PSL 9 is scheduled to be held from February 13 to March 19. In a press release, PCB announced the PSL 2024 Auction date and time of the PSL 9 draft. PCB will conduct the PSL 2024 draft on 15th December at 5 pm.
PSL Draft Model
The PSL 2024 Draft will be held to determine the star-studded squad of the six teams for the 9th edition of PSL on 13 December 2023. PSL follows a draft model instead of an auction. What is the difference between the two is worth noting.
“Auction model,” like in IPL Auction, is regarded with teams free to bid on the players of their choosing from an allocated pool, with the winning bid becoming the player’s salary for the season.
PSL follows a “draft model” with the teams given a pick each to select players for each of its Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Emerging categories. Players of the same categories get paid equal amounts regardless of their stature in the cricketing world.
PCB is adamant about the auction instead of the draft model for the event’s eighth edition. Discussions were also taking place over the hybrid model of auction plus draft, but the franchises had already rejected it. An auction can lead to higher wages than a draft system of predetermined salaries.
The PCB is set to raise the player wage caps and implement a hybrid auction/draft approach in which teams would be permitted four retention and four rounds of bidding, with the final 12 players being chosen in a draft.
The Draft Rules
The rules guiding the retention and trading of players in the Pakistan Super League are as below:
- Each team can have a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 18 players in their squad.
- The team combination consisted of three platinum, three diamonds, three gold, five silver, two emerging, and two players in the supplementary category.
- The 16-player squad must comprise five foreign and eleven local players. An 18-player squad will be formed of six foreign and twelve local players or five foreign and thirteen local players.
- The playing squad of eleven players must contain a minimum of three foreign and a maximum of four foreign players.
- Each franchise was allowed one wildcard pick through which they could pick a player from the Silver, Gold, Diamond, or Platinum category.
- All teams have been allowed to retain up to 10 of their old players.
- Teams are given the go-ahead to take new players directly into their block.
- New players, without any exception, must come in through the draft before they can be picked.
- All players picked last season will be picked as the PSL authority has updated their group. They shall be called up if they are needed.
- Unconditionally, all players who were free from any team’s engagement last season will have to wait until their list is released later.
- Teams will also be able to pick their players in a pre-arranged order. It will be based on rankings of the preceding year. Very soon, there will be an announcement concerning picking players. But the system of picking players may likely be in random order.
PSL Players Category Contracts
Each year, PSL conducts player drafts where local and international players are auctioned to various teams. Each player participating in the PSL is categorized according to their “value.” PCB offers 5 types of contracts to the PSL player.
In PSL 2024 Auction, From Platinum class players at the top end to Emerging class players at the bottom. The player’s category generally determines the league’s salary. Franchises make their picks in a pre-decided order, and the players are divided into various categories.
Supplementary players are picked by teams but are not paid unless they join the squad for the tournament, at which point their contracts will commence. For Supplementary players, there is no contractual base salary.
Franchises can buy back a maximum of one player released on the draft day by paying the respective fee against each category.
- Platinum ($130,000-$170,000)
- Diamond ($60,000-$80,000)
- Gold ($40,000-$50,000)
- Silver ($15,000-$25,000)
- Emerging ($7,500)
- Supplementary ($50,000)
More than 425 players from 32 countries are registered for the draft of the eighth edition of PSL. For the emerging category, players should be under 23.
| Contract | PSL Salary | Notes |
| Platinum | 2,30,44,000 (PKR)$170,000 | Each team can pick 3 players from this category |
| Diamond | 1,15,22,000 (PKR)$80,000 | Teams can choose 3 players from this category |
| Gold | 82,30,000 (PKR)$50,000 | A total of 3 players can be taken from this category as well |
| Silver | 41,15,000 (PKR)$25000 | Franchises can choose 5 players from this category |
| Emerging | 16,46,000 (PKR)$7,500 | Each franchise can sign up to 2 emerging players |
Platinum
Platinum is the premium category in the Pakistan Super League. It includes the PSL Auction’s highest-paid players in the league. This category of players, like all others, earns the same amount of money, which is, in this case, 170.000 USD.
Each team can pick only three players from this category when drafting. This category also includes all the star players in the league and the world. During the 2024 draft, 18 players from this class were selected.
| Players | Teams | Salary (PKR) |
| Kieron Pollard | Peshawar Zalmi | 2,30,44,000 |
| Babar Azam | Karachi Kings | 2,30,44,000 |
| Dale Steyn | Islamabad United | 2,30,44,000 |
| Colin Ingram | Islamabad United | 2,30,44,000 |
| Muhammad Hafeez | Lahore Qalandars | 2,30,44,000 |
| Mohammad Amir | Karachi Kings | 2,30,44,000 |
| Wahab Riaz | Peshawar Zalmi | 2,30,44,000 |
| Hassan Raza | Peshawar Zalmi | 2,30,44,000 |
| Chris Lynn | Lahore Qalandars | 2,30,44,000 |
| Sarfaraz Ahmed | Quetta Gladiators | 2,30,44,000 |
Diamond
Diamond is the second most expansive category of players in the league. Each player from this category earns 85.000 USD. Each franchise can pick up to three players in this category.
This is the second-best category of players in the league as well, and a total of 20 players have been in this category during the latest draft in PSL.
| Players | Teams | Salary (PKR) |
| Faheem Ashraf | Islamabad United | 1,15,22,000 |
| Asif Ali | Islamabad United | 1,15,22,000 |
| Imad Wasim | Karachi Kings | 1,15,22,000 |
| Iftikhar Ahmed | Karachi Kings | 1,15,22,000 |
| David Wiese | Lahore Qalandars | 1,15,22,000 |
| Shaheen Afridi | Lahore Qalandars | 1,15,22,000 |
| Usman Shanwari | Lahore Qalandars | 1,15,22,000 |
| Shahid Afridi | Multan Sultans | 1,15,22,000 |
| Kamran Akmal | Peshawar Zalmi | 1,15,22,000 |
| Shane Watson | Quetta Gladiators | 1,15,22,000 |
Gold
The third salary category on this list is reserved for the Gold players. Same as was the case with the previous two categories, each franchise has the right to pick up to three players in the category, but in the latest draft, Lahore Qalandars get an extra in the replacement round.
Every player in this category gets a 50.000 USD salary, and the category has many of the top players worldwide, including Alex Hales and Shahid Afridi. During the latest draft, 19 players, including five foreigners and fourteen locals, are selected in this category.
| Player | Team | Salary (PKR) |
| Luke Ronchi | Islamabad United | 82,30,000 |
| Hussain Talat | Islamabad United | 82,30,000 |
| Aamer Yamin | Karachi Kings | 82,30,000 |
| Sohail Akhtar | Lahore Qalandars | 82,30,000 |
| Haris Rauf | Lahore Qalandars | 82,30,000 |
| James Vince | Multan Sultans | 82,30,000 |
| Junaid Khan | Multan Sultans | 82,30,000 |
| Darren Sammy | Peshawar Zalmi | 82,30,000 |
| Imam-ul Haq | Peshawar Zalmi | 82,30,000 |
| Umer Akmal | Quetta Gladiators | 82,30,000 |
Silver
Silver is the second least expensive category in the Pakistan Super League. In this category, each player earns 25.000 USD. The category includes all the remaining above-average players in the league.
During the latest PSL draft, a total of 40 players were selected in this category, and out of these 40, 13 players are from foreign countries, and the remaining are local.
| Player | Team | Salary |
| Ammad Butt | Islamabad United | 41,15,000 |
| Rizwan Hussain | Islamabad United | 41,15,000 |
| Mohammad Musa | Islamabad United | 41,15,000 |
| Usama Mir | Karachi Kings | 41,15,000 |
| Salman Butt | Lahore Qalandars | 41,15,000 |
| Shan Masood | Multan Sultans | 41,15,000 |
| Ali Shafiq | Multan Sultans | 41,15,000 |
| Umar Amin | Peshawar Zalmi | 41,15,000 |
| Naseem Shah | Quetta Gladiators | 41,15,000 |
| Ahsan Ali | Quetta Gladiators | 41,15,000 |
Emerging Players
Emerging is the last and the least expensive category of the players in the PSL. Each player from this tier earns 7.500 USD, a category created to bring the rising talent of the league some earnings and provide them with more opportunities.
According to the PSL draft rules, each franchise in the league must pick at least two players from this category, and during the latest draft, 16 players were selected and were rookies in the league during the last season.
| Player Name | Team | Salary (USD) |
| Faisal Akram | Karachi Kings | $7,500 |
| Qasim Akram | Karachi Kings | $7,500 |
| Mohammad Taha Khan | Karachi Kings | $7,500 |
| Mubasir Khan | Islamabad United | $7,500 |
| Zeeshan Zameer | Islamabad United | $7,500 |
| Mohammad Huraira | Islamabad United | $7,500 |
| Zaman Khan | Lahore Qalandars | $7,500 |
| Maaz Khan | Lahore Qalandars | $7,500 |
| Muhammad Ashar Qureshi | Quetta Gladiators | $7,500 |
| Abdul Wahid Bangalzai | Quetta Gladiators | $7,500 |
| Ghulam Mudassar | Quetta Gladiators | $7,500 |
| Sirajuddin | Peshawar Zalmi | $7,500 |
| Muhammad Amir Khan | Peshawar Zalmi | $7,500 |
| Mohammad Umer | Peshawar Zalmi | $7,500 |
| Abbas Afridi | Multan Sultan | $7,500 |
| Amir Azmat | Multan Sultan | $7,500 |
Draft pick order
This round will go through a discussion and drawing process. As per the draw results, the following is the final pick order. The Pakistan Cricket Board announced that Lahore Qalandars would have the first pick. The total purse for each team was capped at $1.2 million.
- First Pick: Lahore Qalandars
- Second Pick: Quetta Gladiators
- Third Pick: Multan Sultans
- Fourth Pick: Karachi Kings
- Fifth Pick: Islamabad United
- Sixth Pick: Peshawar Zalmi
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the highest price in PSL?
In PSL, players are categorized into five categories according to their value. Their salaries depend on the category in which they fall. The highest-paid players belong to the platinum category. Their salary ranges from $130,000-$170,000.
How much does it cost to buy a team in PSL?
PSL has no auction system; a draft model is followed. In the draft model, players are bought and selected for the different categories. The players belonging to the same category are paid an equal amount. Team owners can spend $1.2 million to buy players for their teams.
Which is bigger, IPL or PSL?
IPL started in 2008, and PSL made its debut in 2015. Both leagues are considered the most significant cricket leagues in the world. IPL is more extensive than PSL regarding team count, revenue generation, players’ salaries, prize money, and sponsorships. PSL is yet to be developed due to various factors.
Epilogue
PSL is now recognized globally. Every year, new players and top cricketers show their talent in PSL. All the credit goes to PSL Auction 2024. Although PSL follows the draft model instead of the auction, the players are paid honorably, so more and more investors are interested in investing in this profitable league. Now, PSL’s success knows no boundaries in the future.
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