Karachi
Imad Wasim, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Sohail Tanvir have been promoted to the platinum category as the Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday announced the local players’ categories ahead of the for the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
According to the PCB, the players’ categories were finalised after inputs from all the franchises. “As part of the category renewal process, one representative from each of the six franchises voted for local player categories,” it said in a statement. “Franchise representatives were not allowed to vote for their own players. Teams had a right to submit review requests at the end of this process,” the PCB added.
Tanvir — who was among the top performers in the PSL’s previous edition and ended the National T20 Cup as its leading wicket taker — was promoted from diamond category to platinum. Imad and Nawaz were also promoted from diamond category to the top one while Afridi — who was in gold earlier — was also included in the platinum category.
Platinum is the highest paid category among the PSL’s players. Imad, Nawaz, Afridi, and Tanvir join Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, and Wahab Riaz in the platinum category.
On the other hand, Ahmed Shahzad, Imamul Haq, Haris Sohail, Iftekhar Ahmed, and Umer Akmal were promoted to the diamond category. The PCB noted that players who have donned the Pakistani colours were assigned a base category of gold. According to this year’s draft rules, each team is allowed to retain up to eight players from last year’s roster.
In a major surprise, Mohammad Sami — who was diamond previously and led Islamabad United in the tournament — has been relegated to gold category alongside Ruman Raees, who was relegated on request of his team.
Platinum
Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, and Wahab Riaz.
Diamond
Ahmed Shehzad, Asif Ali, Haris Sohail, Iftekhar Ahmed, Imam ul Haq, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Umer Akmal, Usman Shinwari, and Yasir Shah.
Gold
Aamir Yamin, Aizaz Cheema, Anwar Ali, Awais Zia, Hammad Azam, Haris Rauf, Hussain Talat, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Sami, Rahat Ali, Rumman Raees, Saad Ali, Sahibzada Farhan, Salman Butt, Shakeel Ansar, Shan Masood, Sohail Akhtar, Sohail Khan, Umer Amin, Waqas Maqsood, and Zafar Gohar.
Silver
Agha Salman, Ahsan Ali, Ali Shafique, Ammad Butt, Danish Aziz, Ghulam Mudasir, Gohar Ali, Hassan Khan, Ibtesam Sheikh, Jaahid Ali, Jalat Khan, Jamal Anwar, Khalid Usman, Irfan Khan, Mohammad Asghar, Mohammad Imran, Mohammad Irfan Jnr, Mohammad Musa, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Rizwan Hussain, Sameen Gul, Samiullah, Saud Shakil, Umaid Asif, Umar Siddiq, and Usama Mir.
Emerging
Ali Imran, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammad Azam Khan, Mohammad Junaid, Mohammad Ilyas, Nabi Gul, Nasir Nawaz, Umair Masood, and Umer Khan.—APP
