Warner declines PSL offer, Smith and De Villiers named in the draft

With the fourth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) set to start from 14 of February 2019 to 17 March, 2019, an initial draft of 500 players was named by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

The top most bracket - Platinum, consisted of a host of experienced international stars. Brendon McCullum, Rashid Khan, Thisara Perera, Colin Munro etc. are few of these T20 globetrotters, plying their trade around the world, who have been named in this category.

Interestingly, AB De Villiers, who retired from international in the immediate aftermath of IPL 2018, also was named in the draft.

In his video through which he conveyed his retirement, the former South Africa batsman had suggested that his retirement had nothing to do with 'earning more somewhere else', even committing to continue playing for his domestic team the Titans.

Surprisingly though, he has made himself available for the PSL but still hasn't turned up for the Titans this season. He had confirmed his participation n this year's domestic T20 league in Pakistan through a tweet a few months back.

With Lahore Qalandars performing poorly under McCullum's captaincy, De Villiers was widely tipped to take over as the Qalandar's skipper. As such, we can expect the Lahore management to go all out to secure his services.

Steve Smith, serving his 1-year ban from international cricket for ball tampering, was also named in the squad. Usually unavailable for various T20 leagues due to international duty, this has been Smith's third tournament since being banned.

Global T20 Canada and CPL being the other two. David Warner, who also had featured in the other two tournaments, opted to turn down the offer to play in this edition of the PSL., It will be the first time Smith will feature in the PSL. Smith too, like Abd, might be on the radar of the Qalandars to play the skipper role.

By the second week of October, all the retention and trading of players are expected to be done with, after which, the remaining players will all go into the draft.