The Pakistan Cricket Board is considering selling the Multan Sultans franchise before the start of the upcoming 11th edition of the Pakistan Super League, potentially reversing its earlier decision to delay the sale until after the tournament ends in early May.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that the PCB is in active discussions to offload the franchise as soon as it is legally possible, with the proposal understood to have the backing of senior officials at both the PCB and the PSL. Final approval would be required from PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi.
The shift in thinking has been influenced by the prices fetched by the league’s two new franchises, Hyderabad and Sialkot, which were sold at auction last week for PKR 1.75 billion and PKR 1.85 billion respectively. Those figures significantly exceeded expectations and were nearly three times higher than the franchise fee paid by Lahore Qalandars, previously regarded as the most valuable PSL side.
PSL officials believe the current market presents an opportunity to secure a record price for Multan. Unlike the two new teams, Sultans are an established franchise, having competed in eight seasons and won the title in 2020. There is optimism that selling before the season begins would maximise their value.
At a press conference following the auction, PSL chief executive Salman Naseer revealed he had urged Naqvi to proceed with a sale. “Stage saja hua hai, Multan bhi announce kar dein,” he said, adding that Naqvi responded by saying he had personally taken on the challenge of running the franchise and proving it could turn a profit. Naseer said, half in jest, that he would continue pressing for a sale before the season starts.
No final decision has yet been taken.
Last month, Naqvi said the PCB would take over Multan Sultans for this season, which runs from late March to early May, before auctioning the franchise afterwards. “As soon as the PSL ends, we will auction the franchise off, and in the next eight to ten days, we will appoint an acting head to run the franchise,” he said at the time.
That timeline has since passed, with no announcement of a head coach or senior officials to manage the team. Naqvi had also explained that Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules prevented Multan from being sold alongside the two new franchises, as sales must be advertised a set period in advance. Ownership of the franchise only reverted from Ali Tareen to the PCB on December 31, leaving insufficient time to include it in last week’s auction.
The PSL is scheduled to begin on March 26, but there has been no confirmation on when a player draft or auction will be held. There is understood to be uncertainty over how many players existing franchises will be allowed to retain and whether squads will be completed via a draft or an auction.
One argument for delaying a sale until next year is the possibility of an even higher valuation if the upcoming season proves successful. The recent auction has suggested overseas investors, in particular, are willing to pay far more than previously assumed for PSL franchises.
However, there is also caution over the risk of a market correction if teams struggle to recover their investment. Multan itself provides a precedent, having been purchased by the Schon Group in 2018 before the investors withdrew after one season, leading to Tareen taking over the franchise.
If the PCB opts to push through a sale before the season, it will need to act quickly, with the tournament now less than two months away and key operational decisions still unresolved.
