LONDON: Fast bowler Haris Rauf has been designated a marquee player as six Pakistan international cricketers made the top 50 “hero” list for this year’s men’s Hundred auction.

Fourteen Pakistan men’s players in all are included in the long list of 247, despite reports their players would not be considered by the four Indian-owned franchises amid geopolitical tensions between the two neighbouring nuclear-armed countries. This year’s Hundred also clashes with a Pakistan Test series.

Right-armer Haris, 32, joins South Africa pair of Aiden Markram and David Miller, New Zealand’s Daryl Mitc­hell and West Indies spinner Sunil Narine in the group labelled “Mar­quee Players Intern­ational”, and carries the maximum reserve price of £100,000.

Players were required to submit themselves for entry into the auction, with the eight franchises each submitting a list of 75-100 player nominations from which the longlist was decided.

The top 50 “hero” players were broken down into categories, with Pakistan paceman Shaheen Shah Afridi, all-rounder Shadab Khan and spinner Usman Tariq each listed in tier one while all-rounder Saim Ayub and spinner Abrar Ahmed feature in tier two. Saim nonetheless opted for the top reserve price.

Pakistan actually has the most representatives of any overseas nation among the top 50, one ahead of South Africa.

Sahibzada Farhan, the runaway leading run scorer at the ongoing T20 World Cup, is a notable absentee with the contingent of 14 Pakistan players completed by all-rounders Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir and Imad Wasim and pace bowlers Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah, Zaman Khan, Akif Javed and Salman Mirza.

The four Indian-owned franchises are MI London, Sunrisers Leeds, Manchester Super Giants and Southern Brave.

A total of 63 men and four women from Pakistan applied for inclusion in the respective auctions, with spinner Sadia Iqbal and all-rounder Fatima Sana making the women’s longlist at reserve prices of £15,000 apiece.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2026