KARACHI: Former Australia captain Michael Clarke and former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt are set to headline the star names in the draft for the second edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL), Dawn exclusively reveals.
The player draft is likely to be held on Oct 18 and 19 in Dubai and the duo join the likes of former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum and England T20 skipper Eoin Morgan in putting their names forward for selection by the five franchises.
“Clarke will be part of the Platinum category along the likes of McCullum, Morgan, Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Stuart Broad, Lasith Malinga, Mahela Jayawardene and Kieron Pollard,” well-placed sources told Dawn on Sunday.
“Salman is the notable inclusion in the gold category along with other swashbuckling batsmen namely South Africa’s Richard Levi, Zimbabwe’s Gary Ballance and Sri-Lanka’s Lahiru Thirimanne.
“England trio of Moeen Ali, James Anderson and Adil Rashid also feature in the gold category.
“The players draft will also see a selection of 255 players in the Silver category with the likes of England’s Mark Wood, David Willey, Sri Lanka’s Kaushal Silva and West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran discernible among others.
“On the other hand, 26 players will be part of Emerging Players category.”
The sources added that franchises have asked PSL secretariat to sort out players’ release and transfer issues before the players’ selection meeting so that they could easily make their strategies.
“Lahore Qalandars have released Chris Gayle and, once approved by the PSL secretariat, are mostly likely to pick Sohail Tanvir who played for Karachi Kings in the inaugural edition of the PSL,” sources claimed.
The salary cap of the Platinum category ranges from $140,000 to $230,000 while the Diamond category base price will be from $70,000 up to $85,000 with the Gold category base price from $50,000 up to $60,000.
Also, base price of the Silver category will be $22,000 as compared to last year’s $25,000 but could shoot up to $32,000. Base price starts from $10, 000 in the Emerging category which could go up to $12,000.
Each team, as per the rules, has to pick three players each from Platinum, Diamond and Gold categories, five from Silver and three from the Emerging categories.
