45 players picked on day one of the PSL draft

The day one of the ambitious PSL draft ended today with 45 players being selected by the five different franchises. The PSL had listed 310 players in its draft which included 172 foreign players.

The players were divided into five categories; Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging. Each team was required to pick three players from each of the three top categories (Platinum, Diamond and Gold) and two from the Emerging category. A team will be able to pick up to five players from the Silver category. Overall, 29 players were slotted in the Platinum category, 39 in Diamond, 60 in Gold, 123 in Silver, and 59 in Emerging.

Shahid Afridi (Peshawar Zalmi), Shoaib Malik (Karachi Kings), Shane Watson (Islamabad United), Kevin Pietersen (Quetta Gladiators) and Chris Gayle (Lahore Qalandars) were the first five selections for their respective teams as the five icon players with each player earning the maximum US$200,000.

Brad Haddin is the only other Australian to go in the first six rounds of the auction, picked up by Islamabad – where he will join Watson – in the fifth round for US$70,000.

Watson, Pietersen, Gayle and Haddin will be joined by Darren Sammy (US$140,000), Andre Russell (US$140,000), Dwayne Bravo (US$140,000), Samuel Badree (US$70,000), Lendl Simmons (US$70,000) and Luke Wright (US$70,000). All of these nine players are currently playing in the KFC T20 Big Bash League.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq will join Watson, Haddin and Russell at Islamabad who are coached by former Australia batsman Dean Jones while Watson’s World Cup rival Wahab Riaz went to Peshawar.

The PSL will be hosted in Dubai and Sharjah from February 4 to February 23.

Peshawar Zalmi

Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Darren Sammy, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Chris Jordan, Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Khan, James Allenby

Karachi Kings

Shoaib Malik, Shakib Al Hasan, Sohail Tanvir, Imad Wasim, Ravi Bopara, Lendl Simmons, Mohammad Amir, Bilawal Bhatti, James Vince

Islamabad United

Shane Watson, Andre Russell, Misbah-ul-Haq, Samuel Badree, Mohammad Irfan, Brad Haddin, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Sami, Khalid Latif

Quetta Gladiators

Kevin Pietersen, Sarfraz Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad, Anwar Ali, Jason Holder, Luke Wright, Zulfiqar Babar, Umar Gul, Elton Chigumbura

Lahore Qalandars 

Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Sohaib Maqsood, Mustafizur Rahman, Kevon Cooper, Cameron Delport