Hyderabad, Sialkot franchises sold for combined INR 115 crore as PSL expands to eight teams

Key Highlights

• This is the fee that the owners will have had to pay to the PCB annually for the right to operate the franchise for ten years. OZ Developers put forward a massive Rs1.85 billion bid to beat software company i2c and win the Sialkot franchise.
• I2c also went hard for the next franchise on offer but FKS beat them with a final bid of PKR 1.75 billion to acquire the Hyderabad team. More from First Cricket Bangladesh Cricket Board a divided house as views clash over sports advisor's extreme T20 World Cup stance: Report BCCI provides update on Tilak Varma's availability for NZ series, T20 World Cup post-surgery: 'He is ruled out of...'Both of these are comfortably the highest franchise fee in the history of the league which began in 2015.
• The highest franchise fee before this was Lahore Qalandars’ PKR 670 million.
• The bids help the PSL put forward a strong claim to become the second biggest T20 league in the world behind the Indian Premier League (IPL). There still remains a massive gap between IPL and all other T20 leagues in the world including the PSL.
• The combined fee of the two new franchises at the PSL is going to be around INR 115 crore while the Lucknow franchise was sold for INR 7,090 crore in 2022. Quick ReadsView All'Won't require surgery...': Real reason behind Jasprit Bumrah's absence from 5th Test revealed in new reportPCB bans players from WCL over India-Pakistan match controversyMultan franchise owner opts outThe Multan franchise is set to be up for sale next year after its ex-owner Ali Tareen fell out with PCB.