10 facts to know about Pakistan Super League; Pakistan's answer to IPL

The PCB officially on Sunday launched the Pakistan Super League and its logo on Sunday at a star-studded ceremony in Lahore.

The much awaited league is expected to be a money spinner for the cash strapped Pakistan Cricket Board.

Here are the 10 facts you need to know about Pakistan Super League:

1) The first edition of PSL was initially scheduled to be played in Qatar, but the venue has reportedly been shifted to the United Arab Emirates. The tournament is not being organised in Pakistan due to the security concerns of International teams.

2) On the lines of IPL, the Pakistan cricket board is roping in prominent international players for the T-20 cricket.  The PSL has signed the following big ticket stars for the tournamnet
            
   a) Australia: Brad Hodge
            
   b) England: Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Bopara, Luke Wright, Tim Bresnan, Jade Dernbach, Chris Jordan
   
   c) West Indies: Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Sunil Narine, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Denesh Ramdin, Jason Holder
              
   d) New Zealand: Jesse Ryder, Grant Elliott, James Franklin
   
   e) Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan
             
   f) Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews, Lasith Malinga, Thisara Perera
    
   g) South Africa: Johan Botha

3) Also most of the Pakistan's super stars including Shahid Afridi, Umar Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez will be a part of the tournament, organised by Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Wasim Akram and Ramiz Raja are PSL Ambassadors

Nadia Hussain, Mahira Khan taking bathroom selfie at PSL launch

4) In its inaugural season, PSL will only have five teams.- Islamabad, Quetta, Peshawar, Karachi, Lahore . IPL has always had more than eight teams and by the time the tournament is about to end, most people tend to forget as to what happened a month back.

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5) The 2016 Pakistan Super League will comprise of just 24 matches, with each team playing the other twice. Therefore, the event will end in less than a month. The season will commence on 4 February 2016 with the final match to be held on 24 February 2016.

Misbah, Afridi at PSL launch

6) Ab Khel Ke Dikha ("Now Show Us How You Play"), sung by Ali Zafar, is the official anthem of the first PSL season. Here is the link

 7) The logo for the much-hyped league was also unveiled on the occasion.

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8) Like IPL, In PSL play-off will decide which team gets to play the final instead of the age-old semi-final format.

9) Each team will have a minimum of 12 local and four foreign players and they will all be selected through a ballot.

10) Winners will be awarded with $10 million prize money, whereas, each player will also earn over $50,000, disclosed former PCB chairman Najam Sethi while speaking at the event.