PSL squad  limit raised from 20 to 21

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to increase the number of players per Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchise from 20 to 21 and raise the player salary cap by USD 25,000.

Earlier, the purse allowed per team in the PSL was $1.2 million. Along with the existing squads of 20 players, each team will now be allowed to include a local player from the domestic circuit. The minimum squad of each franchise will consist of 16 players and can be extended to 21 with five supplementary players.

“All franchises unanimously decided to increase the player salary cap by USD 25,000 allowing teams to pick a squad of 21 players for this season,” a PCB release said. “The neawly inducted players will be from Pakistan and may include players unearthed through talent hunt programs or top performers from the National T20 Cup taking place in Rawalpindi currently.”

A day after the draft was held in Lahore, the PCB held a meeting with all six franchises at the National Cricket Academy, touching upon a variety of issues for the improvement of the league going forward. The highlights of the meeting included the stance against anti-corruption, counterfeit merchandising and talent hunt programmes.

Each franchise has a spending cap as players are picked through the draft system from five different categories — platinum, diamond, gold, silver, and emerging. But each category has a varying range and limit. A player can earn in the range of $140,000 to $230,000 for one full season.

The players picked in the diamond category can earn between $70,000 and $85,000 while players selected in the gold category can take home up to $60,000 with the baseline of $50,000. Similarly, players selected in the silver category can earn from $22,000 to $33,000. Emerging players from the Under-19 circuit can be bought in the range of $10,000 and $12,000.