PSL draft first day: Lahore pick Gayle, Pietersen goes to Quetta

Gayle and Pietersen are expected to light up the PSL like they have been doing all around the world

Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen, and Shahid Afridi were the first picks for Lahore Qalanders, Quetta Gladiators and Peshawar Zalmi respectively on the opening day of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) drafts, for the tournament to be held in the UAE in February.

Other significant picks were that of Shoaib Malik and Shakib-al-Hasan for Karachi Kings, Wahab Riaz and Darren Sammy for Peshawar Zalmi, Shane Watson and Andre Russell for Islamabad United, and Dwayne Bravo and Umar Akmal for Lahore Qalanders.

Mohammad Amir has further solidified his position in the global cricket fraternity since his reinstatement in September by getting picked for the Karachi franchise.

Players had to be picked from a pool of 310, including 138 Pakistanis, over two days, across five categories – Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging. The cricketers were put into these categories based on their value in international cricket.

The Platinum category had 29 players while there were 39 in Diamond, 60 in Gold, 123 in Silver, and 59 in Emerging. The prices for these categories were $140,000, $70,000, $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 respectively.

Each team has been allowed to pick a squad of 16, that can be further extended to 20 using complimentary picks. The total salary cap for these squads is $985,000 for a squad of 16 and $1.1 million for a squad of 20.

The first day of the draft contained picks for the Platinum, Diamond and Gold categories while the ones from Silver and Emerging categories will be picked tomorrow. A total of 20 rounds and 100 picks were scheduled for the draft, out of which 9 rounds were done today, with three each for the three categories.

On December 22, there will be five rounds for the Silver category, followed by two for Emerging, and another four for the complimentary picks.

Through a pre-decided ballot, Islamabad were entitled to make the first pick, followed by Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta, and Karachi. Each team was allowed to pick three players each from the Platinum, Diamond and Gold categories. Out of these 15 players, there had to be a minimum of four Pakistani and four foreign players.

Five players will be picked from the Silver category while two will be picked from the Emerging category by each team. Out of the 4 supplementary picks, there can be one overseas player and three locals.

Here are the complete results from the first day of the PSL draft:

Peshawar Zalmi

Platinum: Shahid Afridi (first pick), Wahab Riaz, Darren Sammy

Diamond: Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Chris Jordan

Gold: Tamim Iqbal, Junaid Khan, Jim Allenby

Head coach: Mohammad Akram

Karachi Kings

Platinum: Shoaib Malik (first pick), Shakib Al Hasan, Sohail Tanvir

Diamond: Imad Wasim, Ravi Bopara, Lendl Simmons

Gold: Mohammad Amir, Bilawal Bhatti, James Vince

Head coach: Mickey Arthur

Islamabad United

Platinum: Shane Watson (first pick), Andre Russell, Misbah-ul-Haq (Capt)

Diamond: Samuel Badree, Mohammad Irfan, Brad Haddin

Gold: Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Sami, Khalid Latif

Head coach: Dean Jones

Quetta Gladiators

Platinum: Kevin Pietersen (first pick), Sarfraz Ahmed, Ahmed Shehzad

Diamond: Anwar Ali, Jason Holder, Luke Wright

Gold: Zulfiqar Babar, Umar Gul, Elton Chigumbura

Head coach: Moin Khan

Lahore Qalandars

Platinum: Chris Gayle (first pick), Dwayne Bravo, Umar Akmal

Diamond: Mohammad Rizwan, Yasir Shah, Sohaib Maqsood

Gold: Mustafizur Rahman, Kevon Cooper, Cameron Delport

Head coach: Paddy Upton