Multan Sultans do not receive an offer for ownership renewal, making them the only team to not receive one.
Multan Sultans only PSL franchise yet to receive ownership renewal offer.
The PSL has not made Ali Tareen, the owner of the Multan Sultans, an offer to extend his ownership of the team. The PCB verified that “all compliant PSL franchises” received renewal offers and new franchise payments. The Sultans were not among the franchises to get such an offer, according to a Sultans spokesman.
Following a meeting between the PSL management and the owners, including Tareen, on Thursday, certain teams confirmed that they received renewal proposals. Each of the remaining five franchises has reportedly been offered the opportunity to renew their ownership for an additional ten years.
The Sultans feel they were not invited to meetings pertaining to financial negotiations, but their representatives were invited to sessions pertaining to the upcoming PSL’s schedule and operations.
When Tareen openly criticised the PSL in the lead-up to its tenth edition for what he claimed was a lack of communication and transparency from the management, the long-running conflict between the two organisations came to light. The PSL threatened to blacklist him earlier this year if he didn’t publicly apologise as the criticism intensified in the months that followed.
Tareen sarcastically apologised for “wanting to make the PSL better” in a taunting video apology to management after that threat went public. He tore up a copy of the notification the PCB had issued him to wrap up the video.
It seems clear that the PCB does not consider public “apology” to be such. Each franchise had the right of first refusal when it came to renewing ownership, as all franchise rights were up for renewal prior to the PSL’s next season. However, Tareen was informed by the PCB that this only applied to franchises that were “compliant”—a criterion they believed Tareen had failed to meet with his public criticisms.
Additionally, two new teams will join the PSL this year. A list of cities that prospective owners could name their new clubs after was made public in the PCB’s statement. Two of the new possible cities—Hyderabad, Sialkot, Muzaffarabad, Faisalabad, Gilgit, and Rawalpindi—will be selected.
The eight-team PSL is set to debut in April and May of the following year.