Franchises pick players in PSL-3 draft at Lahore

LAHORE: Players draft for Pakistan Super League (PSL)’s third edition has been completed after all six franchises have picked cricketers in six different categories to complete their 20-member squads here on Sunday.

However, Lahore Qalandars could pick only 19 after they exhausted the limit of pay-scale.

The ceremony, held at a local hotel, was attended by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi, the franchise owners, coaches and other staff members.

Foreign players including Chris Lynn, J.P. Duminy, Mitchell Johnson, Dwayne Bravo, Imran Tahir, Angelo Mathews, Luke Ronchi, Colin Ingram, Wayne Parnell, John Hastings, Luke Wright and Shane Watson were available to be picked in the draft.  

The six PSL teams — which already have nine-player squads —picked 11 players each to complete their 20-member squad using a $1.2 million purse.

All the teams entered the drafts for third edition with squad of 9 retained players and picked 7 more. One each in Platinum, Diamond and Gold category and two each from silver and emerging players’ categories.

Sunday’s draft started with Lahore Qalandars making the first pick in Platinum category by opting for Australia’s most sought after T20 player Chris Lynn.

The Qalandars franchise later picked Mustafiz ur Rehman of Bangladesh in Diamond and Bilal Asif in Gold category.

Lahore picked left-arm spinner Raza Hassan and all-rounder Sohail Akhtar in silver category while Shaheen Afridi and Ghulam Mudassar were picked in category of emerging players.

In Supplementary category, Lahore Qalandars picked Sri Lanka’s Angelo Matthews, New Zealand’s Mitchell McClenaghan and Gulraiz Sadaf to complete their squad.

South Africa’s JP Duminy was picked from platinum category by Islamabad United. The franchise also picked Luke Ronchi in Diamond and Fahim Ashraf in Gold category.

Sam Billings and Zafar Gohar were picked by Islamabad United in Silver categories while dashing batsman Sahibzada Farhan and all-rounder Hussain Talat were Islamabad’s emerging category picks.

England’s Alex Hales, David Willey, Pakistan’s Mohammad Hassan and Mohammad Husnain were picked by Islamabad as their four Supplementary category players to complete the squad of 20.

Karachi Kings picked Colin Ingram in platinum category, followed by Mitchell Johnson in Diamond and Luke Right in Gold category of players. David Wiese and Tabish Khan were Karachi’s Silver category picks while Mohammad Irfan Jr and Hassan Mohsin were picked by Kings in emerging players’ category.

Colin Munro, Eoin Morgan and Saifullah Bangash were Karachi’s Supplementary picks. The franchise skipped their fourth pick to nominate a player from their talent hunt program which will be held later this year.

Australia’s Shane Watson was picked by Quetta Gladiators in Platinum category. West Indian Carlos Brathwaite was picked by the franchise from Diamond category while Rahat Ali was picked in Gold category.

Saad Ali and Ramiz Raja Jr were picked by the Gladiators in Silver category while in emerging players’ category, Sarfraz-led gladiators opted for Saud Shakil and Hasaan Khan.

Quetta’s Supplementary players pick included England’s Jason Roy, Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan and local boys Azam Khan and Faraz Ahmed.

Defending champions Peshawar Zalmi picked Dwayne Bravo in Platinum category. Tamim Iqbal, who was earlier released by Zalmi, returned to the franchise in Diamond category of players while all-rounder Hammad Azam was picked by them in Gold.

Saad Naseem and Taimoor Sultan were Zalmi’s Silver category picks while Sameen Gul and Ibtisam Sheikh were picked by the defending champions in emerging players’ category.

West Indian Andre Fletcher and Evin Lewis along with Pakistani duo of Khalif Usman and Mohammad Arif were picked by Zalmis as Supplementary players.

Multan Sultans, the newly inducted team to PSL family, picked Pakistan born South African cricketer Imran Tahir in Platinum players’ category. Darren Bravo was picked by Sultans in Diamond players’ category.

Ahmad Shahzad, who was initially placed in Platinum category and remained unpicked, was chosen by Multan in Gold category after being twice relegated.

Pakistan’s Mohammad Abbas and West Indian Nicolas Pooran were Multan’s Silver category picks while Saif Badar and Abdullah Shafiq were picked as emerging category players by Shoaib Malik-led team for the third edition of the PSL.

Hardus Viljoen, Umar Gul, Umar Siddiq and Ross Whiteley were Sultan’s Supplementary category players.