LAHORE: Former Australian captain Steve Smith and South Africa’s retired cricketer AB de Villiers headline the 14-member Platinum category of players for the 2019 Pakistan Super League (PSL) player draft. The duo will participate in the competition for the first time in their playing careers.
Since he was punished with a one-year ban in March this year, Smith has participated in T20 leagues in Canada and the West Indies. While de Villiers was last seen in this year’s Indian Premier League with the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Some of the other players in the top category are West Indies trio Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine, former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, Afghanistan’s star spinner Rashid Khan and Australia’s explosive batsman, Chris Lynn.
All foreign players who were a part of PSL squads last season can be retained, traded or released into the Draft Pool by the six franchises. With the trade and retention window currently open, the next few weeks promise to offer great excitement for PSL fans as teams will make key decisions on player retentions, trades and releases.
“This is a very exciting mix of top quality foreign players,” PCB chairman Ehsan Mani said.
“In the next few days, PSL will continue to announce more foreign player signings in various categories as the excitement grows around what should be an extremely interesting Player Draft.”
It was also decided earlier by the PCB that the PSL 2019 will start on 14 February in the UAE and will move to Pakistan for the last eight matches of the tournament, with the final taking place in Karachi on 17 March.
