KARACHI: Most of the A-listers of world cricket might be missing from it but the inaugural edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) has already attracted a number of foreign players.
According to sources a number of players from West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia and England have confirmed their availability for the first Pakistan Super League which will be held in Doha next February.
The players who are expected to sign up for Pakistan’s professional Twenty20 league include West Indian stars Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree.
Then there is the Sri Lankan trio spearheaded by the country’s former captain Tillakaratne Dilshan who have expressed a keen interest in becoming a part of the million-dollar PSL penciled in for February 4-24 in the Qatari capital.
Players from Australia and New Zealand who are willing to play in the PSL include Brad Hodge, Grant Elliot, and James Franklin.
The five-team tournament will include a total of 24 matches. Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad and Quetta will be the five competing teams in the inaugural edition.
According to the Pakistan Cricket Board, top foreign stars from all Test-playing nations except India have expressed interest in signing up for the PSL.
Efforts to launch a PCB-owned T20 league were first made by former chairman Nasim Ashraf back in 2007. Later, the Board tried to revive the plan only to throw them back in the deep freezer.
The project seemed doomed till Najam Sethi, a former PCB chairman who is currently the chairman of the Board’s Executive Committee, decided to finally turn it into a reality. Thought both Sethi and the Board sound confident, it remains to be seen whether they would be able to meet the various targets in less than six month’s time to make the inaugural PSL edition a success.