First players draft of PSL to take place on November 12, emerging players draft to be held separately

The players draft process for the third edition of Pakistan Super League (PSL) is all set to be staged in two phases. The first of which will be held on November 12 which will not include the emerging players category. The draft for the special category will take place in January next year. PSL is the domestic T20 tournament of Pakistan in which the renowned foreign players also take part. The next edition of the tournament will be played in February-March in 2018. Next year the PSL will also see six teams, unlike the previous years when only five teams used to compete for glory.

Multan Sultans is the new franchise which has jumped into the league and will look to get better of the other teams in their debut season. Also, the league games of the PSL will be played in the United Arab Emirates and the playoffs including the final are likely to be played in Lahore and Karachi. Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) are desperate to revive cricket in the country and are slowly becoming more confident to stage the matches including international players.

Why emerging players draft separately?

The emerging players draft will be held separately in a bid to prevent the overage players from getting into the list. During the last season, there were complaints that few players were not fitting in the emerging players category and so to avoid the confusion, a proper mechanism will be put in now. “There were complaints that overage players featured in some of the teams and to overcome that a full process is devised and separate drafts will also allow some of the teams to finish with their talent hunt programmes for emerging players,” the sources said as quoted by Wisden Pakistan.

The third season of the lucrative league will also see some of the players featuring in PSL for the first time. The hard-hitter from Australia Chris Lynn and the West Indies opener Evin Lewis are expected to attract huge biddings. Also, Rashid Khan from Afghanistan along with Mitchell Johnson and JP Duminy have expressed their interest to play in the competition.