5 Notable omissions from PSL draft

Two days of hard work by the team owners and managers, advisors and the coaching staff, 98 players including 70 locals and 28 foreign nationals were picked for the inaugural edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Each team could select a 16-man squad which should have a minimum and maximum of 5 foreigners and 11 local and national players. Added to the ‘Original 16’, each team was allowed to pick 4 additional players (3 locals and a foreigner) as a back-up to the ‘Original 16’ in case of any injury or a national call-up. Each team had a salary cap of $985,000 for the ‘Original 16’ and a total of $1.1 million to pick their 20.

Bound by such strict regulations the team owners and management were expected to make some notable omissions. The following list contains the top 5 notable national players for Pakistan which the writer thinks deserved a PSL contract but was omitted:

1. Younis Khan

Since the announcement of Pakistan Super League, Younis Khan has had his issues with the league and the people behind it. First up, he was not called on the logo launch/announcement ceremony of PSL. PCB says they did send an invite to him but to his hometown address. Younis claims he didn’t receive any. Then again, Younis Khan was not happy to not be named as one of the brand ambassadors for the league though he is not an active T20 player anymore. None of the five franchises showed any interest to pick Younis Khan on the first and final day of the draft process. The reason, as claimed by some inside stories, is that Younis himself had withdrew his name from the player’s draft and wanted to participate rather as coach or consultant. Whatever the true may be, such a marquee player not participating in the country’s first ever league of its own kind do raise some eyebrows.