DSport to air Pakistan Super League 2018

MUMBAI: Discovery Communications branded sports channel DSport will broadcast the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2018.

According to an official statement, DSport will air the 34 matches of the third edition of the T20 competition in Pakistan scheduled to begin on 23 February 2018. PSL will see participation from six teams including debutant Multan Sultans.

The third edition of the HBL PSL will see the addition of 10 extra games as against 24 games last season, one new team (Multan Sultans) and participation by well known names like Kevin Pietersen, Brendon McCullum, Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Kumar Sangakkara.

Among local cricketers participating will be Shahid Afridi and former captain Misbah-ul-Haq, apart from present captain Sarfaraz Ahmed and current national players like Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik.

In a bid to form the initial teams, the five teams from the previous two seasons were allowed to retain two players each from the Platinum, Diamond and Gold category, and three from the Silver category. Multan Sultans were allowed to pick nine players from the five categories in the pre - draft which meant they only had the right to those players which the first five teams didn't retain in their squad.

The player pool for the HBL PSL Player Draft 2017 will now consist of new signings along with players who were released during the retention window and went unpicked in the expansion draft.