Hyderabad and Sialkot join PSL as two newest teams

Hyderabad and Sialkot will enter the PSL as the seventh and eighth teams from this season onwards.

After an auction which saw bids significantly exceed expectations, FKS, an aviation and healthcare conglomerate based in the US who also run the Chicago Kingsmen, and OZ Developers, a real estate consortium, won out at the auction. Both teams were sold at what is comfortably the highest franchise fee in PSL history, with FKS picking up Hyderabad for PKR 1.75 billion [USD 6.2 million], and OZ Developers winning out with a PKR 1.85 billion [USD 6.55 million] bid for Sialkot.

The bidding for the first team began with a base price of PKR 1.1 billion, which is the fee the franchise pays to the PCB annually for the right to operate the franchise for ten years. However, the numbers soon ballooned when FKS, led by CEO Fawad Sarwar, put in a bid for PKR 1.4 billion. They had just raised the previous team by PKR 15 crore; bidders were only compelled to raise by PKR 1 crore.

From thereon, FKS got involved in a bidding war with i2c, a financial technology company. While i2c gently one-upped FKS, the latter jumped ahead in leaps and bounds, raising the stakes to 1.54 billion, 1.68 billion, and finally 1.75 billion, which secured them the team.

That equates to USD 6.2 million, technically cheaper than what Multan Sultans were picked up for by the Tareen Group in 2018. At the time, though, the PCB froze the dollar rate at an artificially low price for much of the previous cycle; de facto, FKS had ensured they would pay the highest annual fee for a PSL franchise by far.

The fee for the side, which FKS announced would take the Hyderabad city name, is in a different stratosphere to the extant PSL sides. The highest fee for one of the other five teams will be paid by Lahore Qalandars, a relatively modest PKR 670 million. Hyderabad's annual franchise fee will thus be almost three times higher than Qalandars' or the equivalent of the fees for Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar combined.

"I still can't believe [we're owners of a PSL team]," Fawad Sarwar, said at a press conference following the auction. "This is a childhood dream. We all started playing street cricket and backyard cricket, practicing in front of the mirror, trying to be the next big thing. I'm very proud, and I'd like to thank everyone who put us in a position to come where we are today."

Buoyed by that high price, the base price for the second side was set at PKR 1.7 billion, a whopping PKR 600 million jump from the base price for the first side. Given only i2c had shown interest in going up to those high numbers, it was less surprising that the auction for the second team involved fewer teams and the price increased only incrementally.

The high bids appeared to have taken at least some of the approved parties by surprise. Telecommunications company Jazz and Inverex Group - a leading player in the solar energy sector - were considered among the favourites to win out. However, neither bid during the auction, with auctioneer Wasim Akram at one point asking Jazz "balance khatam ho gya?" (Have you run out of phone credit?)

Oz Group, a real estate consortium based in Australia, headed by CEO Hamza Majeed, proved the major challenger to i2c, eventually outbidding them when they went up to PKR 1.85 billion. It makes them, and Sialkot, the most expensive side in PSL history, with the retained franchises all valued between PKR 370 million and 670 million (USD 1.2 to USD 2.4 million).

"God gave us the chance to be successful," Hamza Majeed, the OZ group CEO, said. "As an overseas Pakistani, it's everyone's dream to do something for Pakistan. Cricket runs in our blood. I'm looking forward to this PSL Get ready, Sialkot. Sialkot had its own airport, its own airline. Now it's got its cricket team. The Sialkot sports industry will be elevated by our PSL team, and we'd love to win this title in PSL XI."

PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi congratulated the two teams, saying the two new owners were not just guardians of their two franchises but of Pakistan cricket.

At least one side will be sold next year. The PCB will run Multan Sultans for the upcoming season before putting them up for sale. Their previous owner, Ali Tareen, was an approved bidder for this auction, but backed out at the last minute and announced he would not be attending. He declared his intention to try and purchase the Multan side when it comes up for sale.

The 11th edition of the PSL will take place this year from March 26 to May 3.