All eight Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises have agreed on the player retention rules and salary caps for PSL 12, with teams allowed to retain a maximum of seven players ahead of the January 23, 2027, auction.
The decisions were finalized during a workshop at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, chaired by PSL CEO Salman Naseer.
Under the new arrangements, franchises retaining the maximum seven players, including their Direct Signing, will be required to release one player from the highest price tier of the previous auction into the general player pool.
The retention deadline has been set for January 13, giving franchises ten days to prepare for the auction, which will be the second in PSL history.
The deadline has also been aligned with Pakistan’s domestic cricket calendar. It falls after the National T20 Silver tournament and during the National T20 Gold competition, allowing teams to assess players’ recent performances before making their final decisions.
Meanwhile, each franchise will have a salary cap of Rs. 45 crore (approximately $1.6 million), which can increase to Rs. 50.5 crore if a team makes a new Direct Signing, retains its previous season’s Direct Signing, or does both.
Teams will also be required to spend a minimum of Rs. 36.5 crore (approximately $1.3 million).
The Direct Signings window will remain open until November 23, 2026, with each franchise allowed to sign one marquee player who did not feature in PSL 10 or PSL 11.
The workshop also covered trade windows and squad sizes, while all eight franchises unanimously approved the auction rules following a clause-by-clause review.
Speaking after the meeting, Salman Naseer welcomed the agreement, saying all franchises had participated openly in the discussions.
“Every franchise engaged with complete openness, the Auction rules were worked through line by line, and we finished with unanimous buy-in across all eight sides,” he said.
He added that aligning the retention deadline with domestic competitions would give emerging players a genuine opportunity to influence franchise selections through their performances.
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