De Villiers and Smith lead top batch of overseas stars in Pakistan Super League draft

Steve Smith, whose year-long Cricket Australia suspension comes to an end in March 2019, is one of 14 'foreign platinum players' up for grabs in the draft, which is due to take place in November

^{PSL franchises could secure Steve Smith in the draft}

The glittering names for the Pakistan Super League draft have been announced, with banned former Australia captain Steve Smith among those available to franchises.

Smith, whose year-long Cricket Australia suspension comes to an end of March 2019, is one of 14 'foreign platinum players' up for grabs in the draft, which is due to take place in November.

He has recently taken part in the Caribbean Premier League and Global T20 League in Canada.

AB de Villiers also features, as well as big-hitting Aussie batsman Chris Lynn, West Indian allrounders Dwayne Bravo, Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard and Afghanistan legpsinner Rashid Khan.

^{AB de Villiers is also available in the draft}

“This is a very exciting mix of top quality foreign players,” said Ehsan Mani, chairman of the PCB.

“In the next few days PSL will continue to announce more foreign player signings in various categories as the excitement grows around what should be an extremely interesting player draft.”

PSL rules stipulate that squads of 16 must be assembled for the competition, which is due to begin in February.

The trading window opened on September 29, after which time sides could retain up to 10 players from their squads of last season.

Three platinum players are permitted in each squad, in addition to three from the diamond bracket, three gold, five silver and two emerging players.

REVEALED! The PSL 2019 Foreign Platinum Players list. An exciting roster with some of the biggest stars of the T20 format. #PSLPlatinum pic.twitter.com/j9S5iURS6V

— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) October 4, 2018

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