Tareen consortium buys PSL’s Multan franchise

KARACHI: The timing couldn’t have been better. Just when the Pakistan Super League (PSL) was gasping for air, it received a big boost on Thursday when the Tareens bought its sixth team, just weeks before the start of the T20 league’s fourth season.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced that it has awarded the franchise rights of the sixth PSL team to the consortium of Alamgir Tareen and Ali Tareen for the next seven years following the conclusion of the bidding process in which the winning bid was more than the reserve price of $5.21 million per annum.

Commenting on the successful sale of the franchise rights, PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani said this was a key step in the growth of the PSL brand.“I would like to welcome the Multan Consortium of Alamgir Tareen and Ali Tareen to our HBL PSL family,” said Mani, adding: “The consortium includes passionate cricket patrons who are keen to work with PCB to make HBL PSL a bigger brand. It is also heartening to note that they plan to provide a platform for young cricketing talent.

A delighted Ali Tareen said: “Our goal was to retain the sixth HBL PSL franchise in South Punjab and we have succeeded in that. We want to focus on developing cricket in the region and bringing more players from the region to the top level. The HBL PSL is not only a platform for entertainment but also for cricket development.”

Tareen’s bid of US$ 6.35 million won out against a South African consortium, which bid US$ 3.5 million for the rights.The ownership rights of Multan Sultans was terminated by the PCB this year after the Schön Group, a Dubai-based enterprise well-established in the real estate business, failed to pay their annual fee of USD 5.2 million. Tareen, after securing the rights, confirmed the team’s name would stay as Multan, though it remains unclear if it would still be called Multan Sultans.

The players selection process for the sixth team was completed last month in the draft process.Tareen is yet to take a decision on whether he would retain the management structure and personnel that have been at the franchise since last season, when they finished fifth and narrowly failed to make the knockout round.

Squad: Shoaib Malik (captain), Ali Shafiq, Dan Christian, Joe Denly, Laurie Evans, Irfan Khan, Junaid Khan, Mohamad Abbas, Mohamad Junaid, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Illyas, Tom Moores,, Nauman Ali, Nicholas Pooran, Shahid Afridi, Shakeel Ansar, Shan Masood, Steve Smith, Umar Siddiq and Qais Ahmed. —with inputs from agencies