PSL 2019: Ali Tareen's Multan Consortium bags the franchise rights for the Sixth Team

With less than two months left for the Pakistan Super League (PSL) to commence, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finally found the franchise for the Sixth Team. Earlier, it was Multan Sultans but the board terminated its agreement in November for failing to meet the financial obligations. Even the player drafts also took place without any franchise for them. But now Ali Tareen-led Multan Consortium has won the franchise rights for the Sixth Team.

Following the termination of the Multan Sultans which was owned by the Schon Group, the OCB had invited interested bidders for the sale of the team. Though it received a huge response, the board had confirmed that only two bidders had qualified for the decisive stage.

The bidding war was finally won by Ali Tareen, the son of the former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) secretary general Jahangir Tareen. He himself had informed in a tweet about submitting the bid for the Sixth Team.

Reserve price extended

The official Twitter handle of the PSL, informed the followers about the Multan Consortium winning the rights for seven years. The PCB had kept the reserve price of $5.21 million per annum (approximately Rs 36.47 crores) for seven years and bid winners exceeded this price. Tareen was excited during the announcement of the same to the media and expressed his happiness of getting involved in cricket.

“Through PSL, young talent advances. I also request the PCB that cricket shouldn’t be dedicated to one month of the year; instead, tournaments should be held throughout the year,” he was quoted as saying by The Dawn.

Tareen also reinstated that Multan will remain in the team name and called for the suggestions for the second moniker of the side. Interestingly, he also went on to say that if the previous team had no reservations, the new franchise was open to retaining the name Multan Sultans once again.

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