Imad, Nawaz, Afridi, Tanvir go platinum ahead of PSL's fifth season.

KARACHI -- Imad Wasim, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Sohail Tanvir have been promoted to the platinum category as the Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday announced the local players' categories ahead of the for the fifth season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

According to the PCB, the players' categories were finalised after inputs from all the franchises. 'As part of the category renewal process, one representative from each of the six franchises voted for local player categories," it said in a statement.

"Franchise representatives were not allowed to vote for their own players. Teams had a right to submit review requests at the end of this process,' the PCB added.

Tanvir - who was among the top performers in the PSL's previous edition and ended the National T20 Cup as its leading wicket taker - was promoted from diamond category to platinum.

Imad and Nawaz were also promoted from diamond category to the top one while Afridi - who was in gold earlier - was also included in the platinum category.

Platinum is the highest paid category among the PSL's players.

Imad, Nawaz, Afridi, and Tanvir join Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Aamir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, and Wahab Riaz in the platinum category.

On the other hand, Ahmed Shahzad, Imamul Haq, Haris Sohail, Iftekhar Ahmed, and Umer Akmal were promoted to the diamond category.

The PCB noted that players who have donned the Pakistani colours were assigned a base category of gold. According to this year's draft rules, each team is allowed to retain up to eight players from last year's roster.

In a major surprise, Mohammad Sami - who was diamond previously and led Islamabad United in the tournament - has been relegated to gold category alongside...