PSL 2019: Owner of 'The Sixth Team' unveils franchise's name

What's the story?

The owner of the sixth team of the Pakistan Super League, Ali Tareen, has unveiled the name of his recently acquired cricket franchise for PSL 2019. Ali Tareen took to Twitter to announce the name of "The Sixth Team" - the way PSL acknowledged it until now.

The owner said that he zeroed onto the name after he got suggestions and feedback from the fans in South Punjab in Pakistan.

Here is the video:

Awaam ki awaaz sunn lee. Naam ka faisla ho gaya! pic.twitter.com/LmkLqEgOtI

— Ali Khan Tareen (@aliktareen) January 6, 2019

The heart of the matter

Ali Tareen, son of former federal minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangeer Tareen, decided to keep possession of the previous name of Multan Sultans for his newly acquired cricket franchise.

With the team being from South Punjab, Multan was already set to be its first name. However, they were still not sure on the team's second name. Nonetheless, in a video posted on Twitter by Ali Tareen, the owner said that after getting numerous feedbacks he decided to retain the name of Multan Sultans.

"We went to Multan, Bahawalpur, Khanewal, and Lodhran and asked people about their preference of our PSL team's name. They suggested various names like Multan Bahadur and Multan Malang, but there was overwhelming support for the old name".

Hence, we have decided to retain Multan Sultans as the franchise's name," he concluded.

The background

Last year in November, the PCB released a statement confirming that they have terminated Multan Sultans' franchise agreement with Schon Properties Broker LLC as the then owners failed to suffice the financial commitments.

The termination came into effect just nine days before the PSL 2019 draft which was slated to take place in Islamabad. However, with the team rights going back to the PCB, the selections at the PSL 2019 draft were made with the help of the essential staff of the team.

It included Nadeem Khan (team manager), Shoaib Malik (captain), Faisal Mirza (consultant), Haider Azhar (consultant), Johan Botha (fielding coach) and Abdul Rehman (coaching staff).

Post the draft a bid was conducted by the PCB to sell the rights of "The Sixth Team." The Multan Consortium led by Ali Tareen won the rights for "The Sixth Team" by surpassing the reserve price set by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The reserve price was decided to be $ 5.21 million per annum for a term of seven years.

What's next?

PSL 2019 will kick-off from 14 February 2019 in UAE. Nevertheless, the last eight matches of the league will take place in Pakistan. The finals of PSL 2019 will take place on 17 March in Karachi.

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