Lasith Malinga steps away from the PSL

The Sri Lankan T20 skipper Lasith Malinga has decided to pull back from participating in the inaugural season of Pakistan Super League to be held in the Gulf from February 4^th. According to reports, Malinga was not there in the PSL’s draft.

Earlier this year in September, both Lasith Malinga and Angelo Matthews had decided to participate in the PSL, but Malinga backed out citing that he will need time to prepare for the upcoming World T20 next year, where Sri Lanka will be defending the title they won in 2014.

Lasith Malinga’s manager stated that he has quit the Pakistan Super League (PSL) tournament since there was a threat of injuring himself before the World T20 2016 tournament. In a letter written by his agents to the PSL Board, he is currently playing the series in New Zealand after which he will directly play the World T20 Championship. The Sri Lankan Cricket Board didn’t want him to play a lot of cricket before the main event as the doctors had previously advised him not to play cricket excessively.

As announced on December 10^th, there were a total of 308 players drafting in PSL. The PCB had divided into five different categories – Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver, and Emerging. The Sri Lankan pacer was in the most premium, Platinum category.

The PSL that comprises of 5 teams will have an equal balance of players from all categories and will be played in Sharjah and Dubai and the format will be similar to the IPL of India and BBL of Australia.

Also check out: Teams and their squads after day 2 of the PSL draft