LAHORE – The Pakistan Super League (PSL) has set January 13, 2027 as the deadline for franchises to finalise their player retentions ahead of the tournament’s 12th edition.
The decision was taken during an operations workshop chaired by Pakistan Super League 12 Chief Executive Officer Salman Naseer, where representatives of all eight franchises reached consensus on the tournament’s framework, player auction regulations and squad composition.
All franchises unanimously approved the proposed retention policy, auction procedures and squad size requirements after reviewing the rules in detail.
Under the agreed framework, each franchise will be allowed to retain a maximum of seven players. However, teams opting to retain the full seven players will be required to release their most expensive player from the previous auction.
The retention deadline has been scheduled in consideration of the National T20 Cup calendar, allowing domestic performers an opportunity to impress franchise management before final decisions are made.
The workshop also finalised the financial limits for the upcoming season. Each franchise will have a salary cap of Rs450 million, equivalent to approximately $1.6 million.
However, the salary cap will increase to Rs505 million for franchises that make a direct signing, retain a direct signing from the previous season, or do both.
Each team will be required to spend at least Rs365 million during the player auction.
The direct signing window will remain open until November 23. Franchises will only be permitted to directly sign overseas players who did not feature in either of the previous two PSL editions.
Speaking after the workshop, Salman Naseer described the consensus among franchises as significant, not only because of the decisions reached but also because of the transparent process through which they were finalised.
He said all franchises participated openly, with every provision of the auction regulations discussed in detail before receiving unanimous approval from all eight teams.
The PSL chief executive added that the retention deadline had deliberately been aligned with the National T20 Cup to give domestic players an opportunity to strengthen their cases through strong performances in the tournament.
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