Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Thursday said the Pakistan Super League’s (PSL) “loss-hit” franchise Multan Sultans would turn a profitable team ahead of next year’s auction.

Addressing a star-studded ceremony for the auction of the seventh and eighth PSL franchises, the PCB chairman said: “I took a challenge, and that is that there were a lot of claims on social media that the team was in losses.”

“So I, and all of the team, decided that we will show you how much profit this business offers, publish the numbers before going for the auction,” Naqvi added.

The PCB chairman Naqvi, alongside new team owners Fawad Sarwar and Hamza Majeed, and PSL CEO Salman Naseer, reiterated that the cricket board will run the affairs of Sultan in the upcoming PSL 11 before auctioning it.

He acknowledged receiving suggestions about auctioning the franchise alongside the two new teams sold earlier today, but revealed he took a challenge for himself and his team to prove the business as profitable.

“The pressure has started to be built up on me to sell out the team,” he said humorously, while referring to Naseer.

“But my wish is to operate Multan Sultans for one year, and I’m very much hopeful that we would leave it in profit so the world gets to know that it’s a plus-plus business.”

It is pertinent to mention here that PSL expanded to eight teams as Hyderabad and Sialkot were officially confirmed as the league’s seventh and eighth franchises, respectively, following the completion of the expansion auction. 

The OZ Developers, owned by Hamza Majeed, secured the ownership of the eighth PSL team with a bid of Rs1.85 billion and named it after Sialkot in the second round of the highly anticipated auction.

The base price for the eighth PSL team was set at Rs1.70 billion after the FKS Group acquired the ownership of the first franchise up for sale for Rs1.75 billion.

Nine freshmen, led by Duke’s Cameron Boozer and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, headline the men’s Wooden Award midseason top 25 watchlist released Wednesday.

Boozer leads the nation in scoring at 23.3 points per game, with Dybantsa just behind him at 23.1 per game. Boozer has been arguably the most consistent player in college basketball since the start of the season, scoring at least 14 points in every game and tallying seven double-doubles to lead Duke to a 14-1 start. The 6-foot-9 forward is also averaging 9.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

Dybantsa, meanwhile, recently put together one of the most impressive stretches ever by a freshman. In the month of December, he averaged 27.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.3 steals, shooting nearly 66% from the field.

North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson isn’t far behind the two stars, averaging 19.3 points and 10.9 rebounds with 10 double-doubles in his first 15 games.

The midseason list also included two talented freshmen with lingering injury issues. Kansas’ Darryn Peterson has played in only six games this season because of a hamstring injury, although he has started the Jayhawks’ past two games and had 32 points in 32 minutes Tuesday against TCU. Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr. has sat out five games in a row because of a lower-back injury.

Those five freshmen made up the top five in ESPN’s latest 2026 NBA draft big board.

There also are a number of college veterans poised to make a second-half run at the award. Purdue’s Braden Smith entered the season as the favorite thanks to his status as an All-American last season and the top player on the AP’s preseason No. 1 team. He leads the nation in assists, averaging 9.6 entering the week, setting the Big Ten career record earlier this month. Should he maintain that average, Smith would be on pace to set the all-time Division I career assists record (1,076) held by Bobby Hurley.

Iowa State’s Joshua Jefferson and Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg have emerged as legitimate contenders for the award after an outstanding first two months of the season. Jefferson is the anchor for a 14-0 Cyclones team, averaging 17.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists. Lendeborg, a former UAB transfer, leads the No. 2 Wolverines in scoring (14.7) and is second in rebounding (7.0) and assists (3.4).

Players not on Wednesday’s watchlist are still eligible for the late-season list and the final ballot whose voting determines the winner.

Wooden Award Midseason Top 25

listed in alphabetical order

Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
Nate Ament, Tennessee
Cameron Boozer, Duke
Jaden Bradley, Arizona
Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville
Tucker DeVries, Indiana
AJ Dybantsa, BYU
Kingston Flemings, Houston
P.J. Haggerty, Kansas State
Thomas Haugh, Florida
Graham Ike, Gonzaga
Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State
Alex Karaban, UConn
Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue
Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Koa Peat, Arizona
Darryn Peterson, Kansas
Labaron Philon Jr., Alabama
Emanuel Sharp, Houston
Braden Smith, Purdue
Bennett Stirtz, Iowa
Bruce Thornton, Ohio State
JT Toppin, Texas Tech
Caleb Wilson, North Carolina