Multan Sultans

Multan Sultan is a professional T20 franchise that competes in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) The team is based in Multan and Multan Cricket Stadium is their home turf. Initially, the team was owned by Schön Properties. In 2018, Ali Khan Tareen won the rights of the team and went ahead with the same team name.

Background

In November 2018, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) terminated the eight-year ownership right of the franchise after just one action packed season in the league. The termination took place due to the failure of the franchise to pay their annual fee of US$ 5.2 million. Ali Tareen-led by Multan Consortium won the franchise right for the sixth team by exceeding the reserve price in 2018. PCB had set the reserve price at $5.21 million per year for a period of 7 years.

Players

In Shoaib Malik, Multan Sultan have a steady captain who brings his experience into play. In 10 games so far, Malik has accumulated 224 runs at an average of 37.33. He is only second to legendary former Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara. The southpaw from the island nation stamped his authority with 269 runs from 10 matches at an average of 33.62.

Apart from these two, the franchise have also roped in T20 freelancer Kieron Pollard. The all-rounder scalped five wickets and contributed 165 runs with the bat. Known as the ‘Guldozer’ in Pakistan cricket, Umar Gul carries an excellent average of 6.25 as he picked up 8 wickets in mere 2 games for the new side.

Club Trajectory

The Sultans kickstarted the 2018 season with a thumping seven-wicket win against Peshawar Zalmi. They made it two out of two as Imran Tahir baggged figures of 3/27 against Lahore Qalandars. But the side failed to barge the door hard during the later stages and ended up languishing second last in the points table.