After a long wait of nearly five years, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is finally a reality. This showcase event of the Pakistan Cricket Board will kick off its inaugural edition on February 4, 2016 with a host of stars from across the cricketing world participating in it. The grand finale of the tournament will be played on February 24, 2016, just weeks before the start of the World T20 which will be hosted in India later in the year.

A total of 24 matches will be played over the course of 21 days. The competition will be divided into two phases – group and knockout stage. The group stage will be in a round robin format with every team playing the other four teams twice. At the end of this stage, the top four teams will qualify for the semi-final rounds. The winner of each semi-final will face off in a one-off final to determine the winner.

The T20 tournament will see five teams with each team representing a city participating in it. Plans are already in place for the PSL to become a 10 team league within five years.

Some big names from different countries have already been roped in for playing in the PSL. Players including the likes of Chris Gayle, Kevin Pieterson, Lasith Malinga, Brad Haddin along with big names from Pakistan cricket like Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal, Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammed Hafeez have already been confirmed for the tournament.

All matches will be played at two grounds – Dubai International Cricket Stadium and Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium as announced by the PCB.

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium, earlier known as the Dubai Sports Cricket Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Dubai, UAE. It is mainly used for cricket and is one of only three stadiums in the country. It is part of the Dubai Sports City in Dubai and has a seating capacity of 25,000 spectators but is expandable to 30,000 spectators.

The Dubai International Stadium is lit by a special system of floodlights named ‘Ring of Fire’ where the lights are fixed around the circumference of the round roof of the stadium which minimizes the shadow of objects on the ground. It has 350 numbers of floodlights attached in series.

It includes VIP and VVIP sections with indoor box and outdoor terrace seating, a Members’ Club seating area and press facilities for nearly 100 members of the media.

The Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium is in the emirate of Sharjah in UAE. It initially started with a few limited seats and very modest facilities but by 2002 it had a seating capacity of 27,000 spectators. It is also capable of hosting day-night encounters because of its excellent floodlights.

The seating in the stadium includes Chairman Suite, Corporate Hospitality box, 12 seater box, eight seater box, 16 seater box, seven seater box, diamond box and a media box.

The stadium also holds the record for hosting the most number of one-day international matches. It is currently being used as the home ground for the Afghanistan cricket team for One-Day International and First-Class matches.

From 4th February, the first season of Pakistan Super League (PSL) will be started. Along with a number of great cricketers Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim from Bangladesh will play here.

The matches of PSL will be shown in Gazi Tv (GTV), one of the local channels of Bangladesh. Also, some international channels will broadcast these matches.

The list of broadcasting channel of PSL”

Pakistan- PTV Sports, Ten Sports and Geo Super 

England- Prime TV

India- Ten Sports

Bangladesh-GTV

Sri Lanka- Ten Sports, CSN

Arab Emirates- OSN

This season of PSL will be held at Sharjah. In this tournament, 5 teams will play. The final match will be held on 24th February.

The first match and the final match of PSL will be held in Dubai. In the first match, Islamabad United will play against Quetta Gladiators. The other teams in the tournament are Karachi Kings, Peshawar Zalmi and Lahore Kalandars.

The dashing opener of Bangladesh Tamim Iqbal will play for Peshawar Zalmi. The Icon cricketer of this team is Shahid Afridi. The Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and the test captain of Bangladesh Mushfiqur Rahim will play in Karachi Kings.

Bangladesh are unlikely to stop its senior cricketers from participating in the maiden Pakistan Super League despite heightening diplomatic tensions between the two countries, said officials of the Bangladesh Cricket Board on Saturday.

Four Bangladeshi cricketers – Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mustafizur Rahman – have been picked by different franchises of the Twenty20 league.

All-rounder Shakib and wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim were signed by Karachi Kings while opener Tamim and paceman Mustafiz joined Peshwar Zalmi and Lahore Qualandars respectively.

BCB director and media chief Jalal Yunus told cricwizz on Saturday that apart from Mustafiz they have no reservation about any other players playing in the league, scheduled in UAE from February 4-22.

“We have some fitness concerns about Mustafiz,” said Jalal. “So, we may not allow him playing in PSL.”

Jalal said the reason of holding Mustafiz back is purely cricketing and politics has nothing to do with it.

“In this age of professional cricket, we must not discourage our players from playing in the foreign leagues,” he said. “But Mustafiz’s case is different. He is very young and we need to protect him.

“Our fast bowlers suffered from overwork in the past. Mashrafe (Mortaza) had lot problems in the early stage of his career because of this. Taskin (Ahmed) was sidelined for more than a year after playing in the Under-19 World Cup in 2012.

“So, we need to be careful. We have lot of matches coming up. We have to see if Mustafiz can sustain the pressure,” said Jalal, adding that the decision will be finalised after BCB analyses the fitness reports of the bowler.

“I don’t think the others players (Shakib, Mushfiq and Tamim) have similar issues. They are mature enough to handle the pressure and we, at the BCB, believe if they play in the PSL they will get valuable match practice ahead of the World Twenty20.

“It would be a stupid thing if we drag politics into it.”

BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury said they have a cordial relationship with Pakistan Cricket Board and it will always remain the same.

“Any decision that we will take regarding our players’ participation in PSL, it must have a cricketing reason,” said Chowdhury.

Diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan have soured recently after Islamabad protested against the November execution of two opposition leaders for war crimes during the 1971 independence war.

Pakistan asked Bangladesh to withdraw one of its diplomats from Islamabad, Dhaka last week in apparent retaliation after the expulsion of a Pakistani envoy, who allegedly funded a suspected Islamic extremist on trial for espionage.

via : cricwizz

Imran Khan serve Peshawar Zalmi as a Team Mentor. Peshawar Zalmi is most famous and major team for Pakistan Super League PSL 2016 tournament. Not this Peshawar is already T-20 Champion right now they won National T20 tournament, Peshawar Zalmi’s Team owner Javed Afridi uncovered that it was captain Shahid Afridi who had convinced Imran Khan the former great player of Pakistan to act as a Mentor for Peshawar Zalmi team in Pakistan Super League PSL 2016.

Imran Khan has become the mentor of our team and we are overjoyed with this development as he represents the best of Pakistan cricket and we will benefit immensely from his guidance and advice,” Afridi said.Javed Afridi said Shahid had convinced Imran to mentor the Peshawar franchise which has made Zalmi “Youth” it theme word.

Since his retirement in 1992, Imran Khan has avoided taking up any part in dynamic cricket in Pakistan and has turned into a main political figure.

Javed Afridi said that Imran’s relationship with his establishment was absolutely cricketing in nature. “We need the Pakistan Super League to profit by the legacy and vision of Imran the cricketer.”

Afridi conceded that despite the fact that Imran has an exceptionally occupied calendar, the star has guaranteed to set aside time out for the players of his establishment.

Cutter specialist Mustafizur Rahman gets chance on international T20 league on debut year. The left-arm pacer wants to improve him by playing on PSL.

He is very happy to sell out first day on PSL player selection. He wants to fully utilize this opportunity to enhance his bowling skill.

Lahors Qalandars have selected the new sensation of cricket world Mustafizur Rahman from gold category on PSL at 50,000 US dollar. Chris Gayle is the icon player of this team. Mustafiz was bowled out Gayle earlier in Bangladesh Premier League.

Chris Gayle who is the ambassador of world T20 cricket and Mustafiz is really happy to play with the superstar

For now, there is no test, ODI or T20I for Bangladesh Cricket Team. After some days later will have two big tournaments like Asia Cup and T20 World cup. Cricketers will have the opportunity to practice well by this tournament. “By get chance to playing on PSL can bring the extra preparation for upcoming tournaments” told by Mustafiz.

Mustafiz was started his T20 career by international match and he didn’t play too much on this format of game. So the 20 years old wants to know more about the full details of T20 format.

“I want to play more. I believe, there is no end to learning. If I play more, I can learn more. I want to use the opportunity to upgrade myself” added Mustafiz.

Mustafiz haven’t known the full team of Lahore. But some BPL player like his team mate Yasir Shah from Dhaka Dynamites, Kamran Kmal from Chittagong Vikings, Chris Gayle and Kevon Cooper from Barisal Bulls will play on Lahore Qalanders. These players are quite familiar to Mustafiz.

Mustafiz has played fifteen T20 matches so far and taken 20 wickets with an envious average of 16.30 and gives 5.71 runs per over.

Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to fix a specific price for Bangladeshi cricketers in the upcoming Pakistan Super League (PSL). According to PSL Governing committee,  Bangladesh’s ace all rounder Shakib Al Hasan and his teammates Tamim Iqbal, Mustafizur Rahman, Soumya Sarkar, and others will be selected at a fixed price at the player draft of Pakistan Super League (PSL) on December 21 and 22.

The authorities of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) have decided that instead of auctioning a player, the five PSL teams (Lahore Warriors, Karachi Super Stars, Faisalabad Rangers, Federal Vipers and Sialkot Smashers) have to pay a fixed price for each and every player.

The PSL will be launched from February 4 to 23 next year. The two venues of the PSL are Dubai and Sharjah.

“Having opted to go for a draft instead of a player auction, HBL PSL has ensured equal competition and financial viability for all stakeholders. Teams will be paying a fixed price for each buy instead of engaging in a bidding war,” a press-release issued by the PSL stated.

The only Bangladeshi player is Sakib Al Hassan whose name is in the Platinum category list of PSL. Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mustafizur Rahman, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shahriar Nafees are included in the Gold group while Mominul Haque, Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah Riyad and Anamul Haque will be picked from the Silver category.

Players placed in the Platinum category will receive $140,000, Diamond players will earn $70,000, Gold will earn $50,000 and Silver will collect $25,000 respectively.

In this tournament total 308 Pakistani and foreign cricketers have shown interest to play. Out of these cricketers, 80 will be selected by the five participating team.

In this PSL the Franchisee owners can’t chose own brand ambassadors from the designated icon players. The Icon players of the tournament are Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik from Pakistan, Chris Gayle from West Indies, England batsman Kevin Pietersen and Australian all-rounder Shane Watson. These five Icon players will get $200000 each.

PSL Player Draft Rules:

-A minimum squad will consist of 16 players

-A team may choose to keep a squad of up to 20 due to partial availability of some players and to cater for last-minute injuries

-All additional picks will be supplementary picks

-There can be one overseas and up to three local players allowed in the supplementary picks

-The total salary cap for a squad of 16 is $985,000 and the total cap for a squad of 20 is $ 1.1 million

-Player draft pick order for round one: Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, and Lahore

-Every team will have the option of initiating two pick order trades for the entire draft process with a total cap of $75,000