Businessman and former Multan Sultans owner Ali Khan Tareen has called on the Pakistan Super League (PSL) to abandon its draft system and shift to a full auction model, arguing the league is now “a decade old and ready to evolve.”
In a detailed critique, Tareen said the draft may have worked in PSL’s early years, but now distorts player value, forces teams into bad spending, and underpays emerging stars.
He highlighted how franchises are required to sign a local Platinum and Diamond, plus a set number of top‑bracket overseas players. With only eight to ten genuine local Platinums available, teams end up paying up to $130,000 for players who aren’t worth that amount, while genuine match‑winners in the Emerging category are stuck on $7,500.
Tareen pointed to recent seasons where players like Ihsanullah, Abbas Afridi, Ali Raza, Ubaid Shah, and Saim Ayub were among the best performers while earning Emerging or low‑band wages. He expects U19 star Sameer Minhas to face the same fate unless the system changes.
He also called the category structure “inconsistent and conflicted”, criticizing:
- Players being pushed into wrong tiers (e.g., Haider Ali to Platinum despite poor form).
- Franchises voting on categories for rival players, creating obvious conflicts of interest.
- Rigid rules that automatically push anyone who has played for Pakistan into Gold, squeezing young players out.
- The “mentor” loophole being used to manipulate categories and hide higher salaries.
Tareen rejected the idea that PSL “can’t afford IPL money” as a deflection, noting that most IPL salaries for high‑quality players are in the same ballpark as top PSL deals; the difference is that IPL lets the market decide.
He proposed turning PSL’s existing $1.4m team budget into an auction purse, increasing it to $1.5m and, ideally, having PCB top it up to $2m per team, putting PSL in line with ILT20, SA20, and The Hundred.
“The PSL has the players and the budget,” Tareen said. “Now it just needs the will to move to an auction.”
