Pakistan Super League

Pakistan Super League is a Twenty20 cricket league, founded in Lahore on 9 September 2015 with five teams and now comprises six teams. Instead of operating as an association of independently owned teams, the league is a single entity in which each franchise is owned and controlled by investors.

The commercial rights to the initial franchises were sold for US$93 million for a span of 10 years in December 2015. The market value of PSL in 2017 was up to US$300 million, according to Arif Habib.

Pakistan Super League
The PSL season runs between the months of February and March, with each team playing matches in the double round-robin format; the top four teams with the best record qualify for the playoffs and culminates in the championship game, the PSL Cup Final. The league is directed out of the Pakistan Cricket Board head office in Lahore. Due to security reasons, the first season was played entirely in the United Arab Emirates. The inaugural champions were Islamabad United. Peshawar Zalmi were the 2017 PSL Champions, having defeated Quetta Gladiators in Lahore on 5 March 2017. The current champions are Islamabad United, who won the title on 25 March 2018 in Karachi.


Teams
According to a PCB press release, around 20 parties showed an interest in buying franchises for the league before the first season. On 18 October 2015, the Pakistan Cricket Board began accepting tenders for franchises with a deadline for bids of 15 November.

According to a statement by the PCB, bid winners would be granted the rights to a franchise for a term of ten years. Interested parties included the ARY Group, Omar Associates, Arif Habib Group, Haier, Mobilink as well as international groups including Leonine Global Sports and the Qatar Lubricants Company (QALCO).

All five franchises for the first season of the league were sold on 3 December 2015, for a total price of US$93 million, after seven bidders presented formal proposals.

PSL Map of Participating Nations
In April 2017, PCB invited bids for the sixth team and the deadline set for the submission of both the financial and technical proposals was 30 May and as many as 40 national and international parties expressed an interest in buying the sixth franchise.

On 1 June 2017, from five regions short-listed by PCB Multan was bought by Schön Properties for a price of US$5.2 million per year becoming the most expensive team of the PSL.

However, on 12 November 2018, its rights were terminated by PCB due to payment issues. PCB invited bids and resold the "6th team" to Ali Tareen consortium after successful bid with US$6.35 million for 7 years on 20 Dec.