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Cricket runs like blood in our veins. Heart beat
stops for a minute when Shahid Afridi is on strike or when 6 runs on 2
balls are required to win a memorable match. Cricket is truly a passion
that binds our nation into one.
Pakistan Cricket has witnessed ups and downs from time to time. We have
seen the glorious era of Cricket that gave us legends like Little Master
Hanif Muhammad, Asian Bradman Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Kaptaan Imran
Khan, Sultan of Swing Waseem Akram, and Sixer Machine Shahid Afridi. We
became World champions in ODI and T20 formats in 1992 and 2009
respectively. But the urge of more and better never ends.
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The unfortunate incident of terrorist attack in 2009 on Sri Lankan Team
closed the doors of International Cricket in Pakistan for years. The
International teams failed to show their faith in Pakistan’s Security
claims and till 2015 no international sports event was held in the
country. In 2015, Zimbabwean Cricket Team visited Pakistan to play
cricket series on our homeland. The response of the cricket lovers was
over whelming as crowd thoroughly supported the event and turned out in
huge numbers to watch it in stadium.
The streak of faith recovery continues with the launch of Pakistan Super
League, an International Twenty20 Cricket League. The PSL will comprise
of five franchised clubs that will replace the Super -8 T20 Cup in the
country. After fulfilling the formalities, Pakistan Cricket Board is now
able to launch the first season of PSL T20 in Qatar. The event is said
to commence from 4th February 2016 to 24th February 2016.
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Official Logo Launch
Back in 2013, the PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf unveiled the official Logo of
PSL T20 along with Misbah ul Haq, Javed Miandad, and Haroon Lorgat. The
official ceremony took place almost two years back, and in the presence
of PCB officials, Pakistan’s biggest sporting event, PSL is launched
that will comprise of various local and international cricket stars.
A New Beginning...
The Awesome Duo – Waseem Akram and Rameez Raja have signed official
contracts with the PCB to be the brand ambassadors of the Pakistan T20
Super League (PSL) for the next three years. Currently there will be
five teams (Lahore, Karachi, Sialkot, Faisalabad, & Rawalpindi/Islamabad
teams) and depending upon the success of the tournament; more teams are
expected to become a part of it. This is just the beginning of a new era
of Cricket in Pakistan.
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Format of the League
Pakistan Cricket Board is all set to start the franchise auction,
bidding process, broadcasting media rights and other related
merchandise. The Players Auction is most likely to take place in
November.
The players participating in the league will be categorized into three
categories.
Category A: Players ranging from $60,000 to $75,000;
Category B: Players ranging from $35,000 to $50,000;
Category C: Players ranging from $25,000 to $30,000
Season
The inaugural season of PSL will be played for 20 days comprising of
total of 24 matches, being at a single venue Doha, Qatar. The 5 teams
will play each other twice in a league format before the Play Offs.
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Players to Feature
International Players who are most probably being the part of the PSL
includes 1) A.J. Finch 2) A.D. Hales 3) F. du Plessis 4) C.H. Gayle 5)
B.B. McCullum 6) M.D.K.J. Perera 7) E.J.G. Morgan 8) M.J. Guptill 9)
D.A. Warner 10) H. Masakadza 11) T.M. Dilshan 12) K.S. Williamson 13)
J.P. Duminy 14) S.R. Watson 15) M.N. Samuels 16) S. Badree 17) S.P.
Narine 18) S.M.S.M Senanayake 19) M.A. Starc 20) Shakib Al Hasan 21) S.L.
Malinga 22) N.L. McCullum 23) K.M.D.N. Kulasekara 24) P. Utseya 25) M.J.
McClenaghan 26) P.J. Cummins 27) Imran Tahir 28) A.D. Mathews 29) S.T.
Finn 30) G.J. Maxwell
The above mentioned players are added to PSL Players Auction List.
Milestone Achieved
The hard work of PCB is rightly paid off with the launch of PSL, world
class cricketing event that will change the spectrum of Pakistan
Cricket. Let’s hope that this event will bring the joy and success for
the country and turns out to be entertaining for the crowd.
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