LAHORE: The deadline for franchise player retention for the HBL Pakistan Super League has been set for Jan 13, 2027, ten days before the player auction, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Friday.
“The timing is deliberate. It falls after the completion of the National T20 Silver tournament and during the National T20 Gold — meaning franchises will make their final retention calls with a full set of Silver results behind them and live Gold performances unfolding in front of them,” the PCB said in a statement.
The next year’s event is to start from March 18 and will end on May 2.
“A domestic player in form on Jan 13 could force his way into franchise thinking in real time. This is what the pathway from national circuit cricket into PSL looks like in practice: not a theoretical ambition, but a live, data-driven link between the two competitions.”
Each franchise may retain a maximum of seven players, inclusive of their Direct Signing.
As a condition of exercising maximum retention, any franchise retaining seven players must return one player from the highest price tier of the last auction to the general player pool, ensuring the PSL 12 Auction features elite-level talent available to all franchises,” the announcement added.
Meanwhile, about the auction rules, the PCB also decided what franchises described as a thorough and constructive process, the PSL 12 Auction Rules were reviewed clause by clause and adopted unanimously by all eight sides. The Player Auction, only the second in PSL’s history, takes place on Jan 23, 2027.
“Each franchise’s salary cap going into the Auction is Rs45 crore ($1.6 million). A franchise’s cap rises to Rs50.5 crore if it makes a Direct Signing for PSL 12, retains last season’s Direct Signing, or does both. A minimum spend of Rs36.5 crore ($ 1.3 million) applies to all franchises,” it was announced.
“Direct Signings remain open until Nov 23, 2026. Each franchise may directly sign one marquee player, who did not feature in PSL 10 or PSL 11,” it concluded.
Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2026
