LAHORE: Five Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises retained nine players each from their rosters while new entrants Multan Sultans will pick their first ten players on October 10, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced Thursday.

The Multan side will be able to pick from the players released by the other five franchises before the teams gather for the main draft early next year.

“The five existing franchises submitted names of two players each in Platinum, Diamond and Gold categories along with three players in the Silver category,” a PCB press release said.

“All released players will now be eligible for selection by Multan Sultans who will submit their picks on Oct 10.

“Players who go unpicked at the expansion draft will join fresh entrants to this year’s player roster for the main draft,” the PCB statement added.

Some of the big names who have been released by their respective franchises include Shane Watson from Islamabad United, Ahmed Shehzad from last year’s runner-ups Quetta Gladiators, Chris Gayle and Shoaib Malik from Karachi Kings, Grant Elliott from Lahore Qalandars and Eoin Morgan from Peshawar Zalmi.

Star all-rounder Shahid Afridi made a move to Karachi Kings earlier this week with the Salman Iqbal-owned side also securing wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan from Lahore Qalandars at the expense of pacer Sohail Khan.

Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Khalid Latif and Shahzaib Hasan are no longer included in the draft process after they were punished with bans for involvement in the spot-fixing saga that hit the PSL’s 2017 edition.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2017