PCB put Multan Sultans up for auction in search of new owners as they look for high prices like the new franchises.
Prior to the start of the PSL’s eleventh season on March 26, the PCB has made the decision to put Multan Sultans up for auction. Interested parties are requested to submit technical solutions by January 30 in response to a tender requesting bids for Sultans.
As PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi stated last month, the PCB’s brief consideration of running Multan Sultans in-house this season has come to an end. As a result, when the two recently added teams were auctioned off in Islamabad last week, Sultans were not offered for sale.
Senior PCB and PSL officials supported the plan to auction the Sultans; Naqvi’s final approval was all that was needed. The hefty rates at which the two new teams, Hyderabad and Sialkot, were sold—PKR 1.75 and PKR 1.85 billion, respectively—are said to have boosted the PSL. The franchise payments were almost three times higher than those of Lahore Qalandars, the most lucrative of the current PSL teams, and the sales, which happened at an auction, considerably above the PCB’s expectations.
PSL administrators believe that the sales make this an especially good time to get Sultans the best deal. Sultans is an established PSL team that has participated in eight PSL seasons and won the championship in 2021, in contrast to the two new teams. PSL administrators are therefore hopeful that a sale before to the season will result in the highest asking price of all.
i2c, a financial technology company, was one of the top bids for both teams but ended up on the losing side, while other bidders for the other two teams left the auction earlier as the numbers skyrocketed.
Ali Tareen, the former owner of Sultans, withdrew from the auction for one of the two new franchises at the last minute but pledged to return when Sultans would be placed up for sale. Tareen’s decision to leave the franchise at the end of last year prompted the PCB to look for a new buyer.
One of several important factors pertaining to this PSL season that remain unsolved is the Sultans’ ownership predicament. A draft date for the squads has not yet been declared by the PSL, and it cannot take place until the Sultans have a new owner.
A PSL general council meeting discussing these issues is scheduled for Friday.