Two new franchises were added to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) XI as OZ Developers put forward a massive Rs1.85 billion bid to win Sialkot moments after FKS group won Hyderabad for Rs1.75bn. OZ Developers were in a bidding war with software company i2c as they went head-to-head in the second round of the auction taking place at the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad. I2c’s final bid was Rs1.82bn before OZ Developers upped the ante and ended the night at Rs1.85bn, the highest ever bid for a PSL franchise. The first round of the auction was won by FKS, which was also in a bidding war with i2c, whose final bid was Rs1.7bn. The base price for the first franchise was set at Rs1.1bn. This will be Hyderabad and Sialkot’s first appearance since the league’s inception in 2015. Ahead of the start of the auction taking place at Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi awarded a cash prize of Rs 90 million to the team that won the Rising Star Asia Cup. The team that won the Hong Kong Sixes title was also awarded a cash prize of Rs 18.5m. Ex-Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen pulls out of PSL team auction Earlier, Tareen announced on social media that he had pulled out of the HBL PSL team auction, as owning the team was also about “giving a voice” to south Punjab. In a post on X, Tareen said he and his family would not participate in the franchise auction. “Our time with Multan Sultans was never just about owning a cricket team. It was about south Punjab,” he wrote. “[It was] about giving a voice to a region that had been overlooked for too long. That’s what drove everything we built.” Tareen added that if he were to return to the league, it would have to be for the same reason, stating that south Punjab “is where my heart is”. “This year, I’ll be in the stands. Cheering for players on and celebrating with the fans. And when the Multan team is being sold, we’ll be ready,” he wrote. More to follow.