FKS group on Thursday won the bid for the seventh team to join Pakistan Super League (PSL) XI with a massive Rs 1.75 billion bid during the ongoing auction for the franchise league beginning on March 26, as ex-Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen bowed out of the auction earlier today.

FKS was in a bidding war with software company i2c, with both prospective franchise owners upstaging each other in the first round of the auction; i2c’s final bid was Rs1.7bn.

The base price for the franchise was set at Rs1.1bn.

Ex-Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen pulls out of PSL team auction

Earlier, Tareen announced on social media that he had pulled out of the HBL PSL team auction, as owning the team was also about “giving a voice” to south Punjab.

In a post on X, Tareen said he and his family would not participate in the franchise auction.

“Our time with Multan Sultans was never just about owning a cricket team. It was about south Punjab,” he wrote. “[It was] about giving a voice to a region that had been overlooked for too long. That’s what drove everything we built.”

Tareen added that if he were to return to the league, it would have to be for the same reason, stating that south Punjab “is where my heart is”.

“This year, I’ll be in the stands. Cheering for players on and celebrating with the fans. And when the Multan team is being sold, we’ll be ready,” he wrote.

More to follow.