The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that the formation of teams for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2021 has been finalized.
According to a statement issued by the PCB, two-time champions Islamabad United will select the first players in the drafting of PSL 2021.
Multan Sultans and PSL 2020 finalists Lahore Qalandars will select their players at second and third place respectively.
Peshawar Zalmi and Quetta Gladiators will select the fourth and fifth available players respectively, both teams have been champions in the 2017 and 2019 editions.
The Karachi Kings, who have won the PSL title for the first time this year, will have the last chance to select a sixth-ranked player.
The PCB said in a statement that the team numbers were decided in the presence of representatives of all the six teams at the PCB headquarters in Lahore.
According to the statement, the next 17 rounds were decided by statistics.
The PCB said that full details regarding the drafting of players for PSL 2021 would be released.
The statement did not provide details regarding the categories and names of the players, but the top players in PSL 2020 were included in the Platinum, Diamond, Gold, Silver and Emerging categories.
A statement issued by the PCB said that the players’ renewal process has taken into account the performance of players in national and international cricket, including previous editions, and the popularity of cricketers in the T20 format.
The statement said that the basic category of players representing Pakistan has been fixed as Gold and according to the new rules, each team will be able to retain a maximum of eight players from the previous edition for the next edition.
The PCB had said that players under the age of 24 who were part of the national cricket team before the completion of the category stage would not be part of the emerging category while players under the age of 24 would be part of the emerging category for more than 2 years. However, players who have played 4 or fewer matches in 2 years can remain in the emerging category.