PSL 2019: Wasim Akram takes over as the president of Karachi Kings

The Pakistan Super League (PSL) teams are in action retaining and releasing players, while they’re also preparing for the players draft, Karachi Kings decided to make a major change in the team management. A day after revealing the retained squad, they appointed former national team captain Wasim Akram as the president of the team.

The franchise owner Salman Iqbal Ary made the announcement and welcomed Akram to the family. Earlier in his most recent stint, the former pacer had served as the team director and the bowling coach of the now defunct Multan Sultans franchise. Wasim was also the mentor and coach of the Islamabad United team for the first couple of seasons and they were the inaugural champions of the tournament.

Salman tweeted- “Sultan of Swing is The New King” … The Legendary Wasim Akram joins Karachi Kings as The President of the team! Welcome.”

"Sultan of Swing is The New King" … The Legendary @wasimakramlive joins #KarachiKings as The President of the team ! Welcome !! #BigNews #SalmanIqbal #PSL2019 #DeDhanaDhan @KarachiKingsARY pic.twitter.com/aB5JgUqvFJ

— Salman Iqbal ARY (@Salman_ARY) November 14, 2018

Retention decisions

The Kings surprised many with the decision to release former Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi ahead of the fourth season. They also let go England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan. As far as the retention is concerned they retained 7 players split in the diamond, platinum and gold categories with one ambassador in Colin Ingram.

The released players also included Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson who retired from all forms of cricket. Other names include English all-rounder Luke Wright, South African David Wiese and Pakistan cricketer Khurram Manzoor.

Karachi Kings Retained players for PSL 2019:

Diamond Category: Colin Ingram (Overseas), Usman Khan, Imad Wasim

Platinum Category: Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam, Colin Munro (Overseas)

Gold Category: Mohammad Rizwan, Ravi Bopara (Overseas)

Released players: Shahid Afridi, Usama Mir, Khurram Manzoor, Mitchell Johnson, Luke Wright, David Wiese, Tabish Khan, Mohammad Irfan Junior, Hasan Mohsin, Eoin Morgan, Saifullah Bangash

The players draft is scheduled to be held in the national capital Islamabad on November 20 and the season kicks-off on 14th February 2019 whereas the final will be played on March 17.

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