LAHORE: The HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2020 will once again feature the best of Pakistan cricket talent as the new categories of local players who took part in the PSL 2019 season have been finalised.

Babar Azam, the newly-appointed Pakistan T20 captain, heads the Platinum category; team-mates Shaheen Shah Afridi, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali (leading wicket-taker in PSL 2019) and Shadab Khan have graduated to the Platinum category for the HBL PSL 2020 season.

The completion of the renewal process has also kick-started the player recruitment process for the upcoming season.

As part of the category renewal process, one representative from each of the six franchises voted for local player categories. Franchise representatives were not allowed to vote for their own players.

The teams had a right to submit review requests at the end of this process.

Head of player acquisition and management Imran Ahmed Khan and national selection coordinator Nadeem Khan then reviewed the final list based on this process.

Meanwhile, various factors such as HBL PSL performances, national team performances, domestic performances and perceived T20 brand value were considered at length as part of the two-step player category renewal process.

All those who have donned the Pakistan 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.

Players who are U-23 but have been called up to the Pakistan squad before the category finalisation process cannot be a part of the Emerging category. Additionally, U-23 players cannot be part of a squad as an Emerging player for more than two years unless they have played three or less matches in these two years.

The teams reserve the right to float relegation requests for the players before finalising retentions. After relegation request is floated, all other teams shall be given a chance to meet the player’s base category. If no team matches the player’s base category, the player will be relegated to a category below his base category.

Relegation requests may only be floated after obtaining consent from the player. The list of all local players who were not part of the PSL 2019 shall be released separately.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2019