Pakistan Super League has now got two more new teams. These teams include Hyderabad and Sialkot. On January 8, the Pakistan Cricket Board had organized an auction for two new franchises at the Jinnah Convention Center in Islamabad, in which 360 crore Pakistani rupees were spent on these two teams. One team has been bought by a US-run aviation and health sector company, while the other team has been bought by a real estate firm.
Aviation and health sector company FKS has bought the Hyderabad franchise for 175 crore Pakistani rupees, or about 6.2 million US dollars, while real estate firm OZ Developers has bought the Sialkot franchise for 185 crore Pakistani rupees, or about 6.55 million US dollars.
Let us tell you that the auction of these two new teams of PSL started with the base price of Pakistani rupees 110 crores. This is the amount that each franchise pays to the PCB annually. 9 groups had participated in this auction, although earlier 12 groups had expressed interest. Before the auction, Ali Tareen, who was the owner of Multan Sultan, had informed through social media that he was withdrawing his name from the auction. OZ Developers faced tough competition from I2C, however, OZ Developers bought the Sialkot franchise with a bid of Rs 185 crore.
During this auction, the two most successful bidders had to choose the name of their franchise from 6 names. These names included Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Gilgit, Sialkot and Muzaffarabad. Both these successful candidates chose the names of Hyderabad and Sialkot. Today was not only a big day for Pakistan Super League, but was also important for Pakistan cricket. Actually, before this auction process, Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Mohsin Naqvi made a big announcement. He announced a prize money of Rs 9 crore for the team that won the Rising Stars Asia Cup and also announced a prize money of Rs 1.8 crore for the Pakistan team that won the Hong Kong Six Tournament.
