Australia's Steve Smith eager to play in PSL
Australian cricketer has never played PSL before and is eager to participate in Pakistan's mega cricket tournament
April 11, 2023
Australia's former captain Steve Smith, known for scoring runs in Test cricket, has shared eagerness to play in the Pakistan Super League (PSL)
The 33-year-old hard-hitter termed the league as a great tournament, which he would like to participate in in the future.
"I would love to come to play at some point. I think it looks like a really great tournament," said the prolific right-hander, while responding during a Q&A session on Instagram.
Australian opener David Warner had also earlier expressed his wish to play in the Pakistani league.
“When can I play?” the Australian cricketer had said while responding to an Instagram post by Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan after the latter’s side Lahore Qalandars defeated Quetta Gladiators in the recently-concluded PSL 8.
Smith has played 240 T20 matches over the course of his career with 5,150 runs at a strike rate of 127.60.
The last edition of PSL was won by Lahore Qalandars, who became the first team to win back-to-back titles.
It must be noted that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Management Committee Chairman Najam Sethi had earlier said that the number of teams in the PSL can be increased to 10 due to high demand.
"There is immense pressure to increase the number of teams in PSL, but unfortunately Ehsan Mani and Ramiz Raja made an agreement with the franchises that only six teams will play in the next two years. However, it was an eight-team project. We have to convince the franchises to include two more teams,” said Sethi.
“No one will lose anything, and if a franchise suffers a loss, the PCB will take responsibility. But there is a high demand to include two more teams, and it will be more successful with many people showing interest to be part of it. Let me tell you, even if there were 10 teams now, all of them would be sold due to the high demand,” he added.
It is worth mentioning here that the PSL was initially a five-franchise tournament, but later, Multan Sultans joined PSL after the then chairman Sethi announced after the conclusion of the second edition that there would be a sixth team in the PCB's flagship event.
