PCB chief vows to make Multan Sultans profitable by next year

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Thursday said the Pakistan Super League’s (PSL) "loss-hit" franchise Multan Sultans would turn a profitable team ahead of next year’s auction.

Addressing a star-studded ceremony for the auction of the seventh and eighth PSL franchises, the PCB chairman said: "I took a challenge, and that is that there were a lot of claims on social media that the team was in losses.”

“So I, and all of the team, decided that we will show you how much profit this business offers, publish the numbers before going for the auction," Naqvi added.

The PCB chairman Naqvi, alongside new team owners Fawad Sarwar and Hamza Majeed, and PSL CEO Salman Naseer, reiterated that the cricket board will run the affairs of Sultan in the upcoming PSL 11 before auctioning it.

He acknowledged receiving suggestions about auctioning the franchise alongside the two new teams sold earlier today, but revealed he took a challenge for himself and his team to prove the business as profitable.

"The pressure has started to be built up on me to sell out the team," he said humorously, while referring to Naseer.

"But my wish is to operate Multan Sultans for one year, and I'm very much hopeful that we would leave it in profit so the world gets to know that it's a plus-plus business."

It is pertinent to mention here that PSL expanded to eight teams as Hyderabad and Sialkot were officially confirmed as the league’s seventh and eighth franchises, respectively, following the completion of the expansion auction. 

The OZ Developers, owned by Hamza Majeed, secured the ownership of the eighth PSL team with a bid of Rs1.85 billion and named it after Sialkot in the second round of the highly anticipated auction.

The base price for the eighth PSL team was set at Rs1.70 billion after the FKS Group acquired the ownership of the first franchise up for sale for Rs1.75 billion.