Two new franchises were added to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) as OZ Developers put forward a massive Rs1.85bn bid to win Sialkot, moments after the FKS Group secured Hyderabad for Rs1.75bn at the league’s auction on Thursday.

OZ Developers were in a bidding war with software company i2c as they went head-to-head in the second round of the auction taking place at the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad.

I2c’s final bid was Rs1.82bn before OZ Developers upped the ante and ended the night at Rs1.85bn, the highest ever bid for a PSL franchise.

The first round of the auction was won by FKS, which was also in a bidding war with i2c, whose final bid was Rs1.7bn.

The base price for the first franchise — the seventh team being added to PSL — was set at Rs1.1bn, while the base price for the eighth team was Rs1.7bn.

This will be Hyderabad and Sialkot’s first appearance since the league’s inception in 2015, with this year’s league set for March 26-May 3.

The cities up for potential franchise allocation included Faisalabad, Gilgit, Hyderabad, Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi and Sialkot.

The current PSL teams include Lahore Qalandars, Islamabad United, Peshawar Zalmi, Quetta Gladiators, Karachi Kings and Multan Sultans.

Bidders for the two new teams were FKS, OZ Developers, Aim Next inc, Deharki Sugar Mills, Inverex Solar, i2c, Jazz, Prism Developers, VGO TEL, and Walee Pakistan.

Commentator and former Pakistan cricket team captain Wasim Akram hosted the auction as PSL CEO Salman Naseer joined him on stage.

“Ten years of PSL have lead us to this moment,” Naseer said at the start of the auction.

Akram coaxed the bidders by reminding them that winning a bid was more than just ownership; it was the ability to design new logos, kits, interact with players and much more.

Ahead of the bidding process, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi awarded a cash prize of Rs 90 million to the team that won the Rising Star Asia Cup.

The team that won the Hong Kong Sixes title was also awarded a cash prize of Rs 18.5m.

The bidding deadline was extended multiple times — initially from December 15 to December 22, and further to December 24 — amid growing interest from investors in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and beyond, following promotional roadshows in London and New York.

Ex-Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen pulls out of auction

Earlier in the day, ex-Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen announced on social media that he and his family would not be participating in the PSL auction.

“Our time with Multan Sultans was never just about owning a cricket team. It was about south Punjab,” he wrote in a post on X.

“[It was] about giving a voice to a region that had been overlooked for too long. That’s what drove everything we built.”

Tareen added that if he were to return to the league, it would have to be for the same reason, stating that south Punjab “is where my heart is”.

“This year, I’ll be in the stands. Cheering for players on and celebrating with the fans. And when the Multan team is being sold, we’ll be ready,” he wrote.