The players draft for the Pakistan Super League's (PSL) third edition was held today in Lahore.

A total of 501 foreign and local cricketers were available for selection at the draft.

The six teams that form the league had previously retained nine players each and went into the draft to pick one platinum, one diamond, one gold, two silver and two emerging players each in order to complete their squads of 16. Teams also had the option of picking up to four players in the supplementary rounds.

Each team had a salary cap of $1.2 million for a squad of 20 players.

Confirmed drafts

Platinum category

• Islamabad United have successfully bid for South African all-rounderJP Duminy in the platinum category.

• Karachi Kings have picked batsman Colin Ingram, also from South
  Africa.

• Lahore Qalandars have picked Australian batsman Chris Lynn in the category.

• Quetta Gladiators have drafted Shane Watson, an all-rounder from Australia.

• Peshawar Zalmi have drafted West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo.

• Multan Sultans have picked South African spin-bowler Imran Tahir.

Diamond category

• Lahore Qalandars have picked Bangladesh bowler Mustafizur Rehman in the diamond category.

• Islamabad United have picked New Zealand batsman Luke Ronchi.

• Karachi Kings have drafted Australian pace bowler Mitchell Johnson.

• Quetta Gladiators have drafted West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite.

• Peshawar Zalmi have drafted Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal.

• Multan Sultans have picked West Indies batsman Darren Bravo.

Gold category

• Peshawar Zalmi have picked all-rounder Hammad Azam.

• Islamabad United have picked batsman Faheem Ashraf.

• Quetta Gladiators have picked pacer Rahat Ali.

• Lahore Qalandars have picked all-rounder Bilal Asif.

• Karachi Kings have picked English batsman Luke Wright.

• Multan Sultans have picked batsman Ahmed Shehzad.

Silver category (two players to each team)

• Lahore Qalandars have picked spin bowler Raza Hasan and all-rounder Sohail Akhtar in the silver category.

• Islamabad United have picked England wicket-keeper/batsman Sam Billings and batsman Zafar Gohar.

• Peshawar Zalmi have picked all-rounder Saad Nasim and batsman Taimur Sultan.

• Quetta Gladiators have picked batsmen Rameez Raja Jr and Saad Ali.

• Karachi Kings have drafted South African all-rounder David Wiese and Tabish Khan, also an all-rounder.

• Multan Sultans have picked pacer Mohammad Abbas and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman Nicholas Pooran.

Emerging Players category (two players to each team)

• Lahore Qalandars pick young pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi, retained pacer Ghulam Mudassar.

• Islamabad United have picked batsman Sahibzada Farhan, retained batsman Hussain Talat.

• Karachi Kings have picked all-rounder Mohammad Irfan Jr, retained pacer Hasan Mohsin.

• Quetta Gladiators have drafted all-rounder Saud Shakeel and retained spin bowler Hasan Khan.

• Peshawar Zalmi have picked pacer Sameen Gul and all-rounder Ibtisam Sheikh.

• Multan Sultans have picked batsman Abdullah Shafiq and all-rounder Saif Badar.

Supplementary draft (franchises can call upon supplementary players in case players they have picked become unavailable.)

• Lahore Qalandars picked Angelo Mathews, Mitchell McClenaghan and Gulraiz Sadar.

• Islamabad United picked Alex Hales, David Willey, Mohammad Hasan and Mohammad Hasnain.

• Karachi Kings drafted Colin Munro, Eoin Morgan and Saifullah Bangash.

• Quetta chose Jason Roy, Rashid Khan, Azam Khan and Faraz Ahmed Khan.

• Peshawar Zalmi took a bet on Andre Fletcher, Evin Lewis, Khalid Usman and Mohammad Arif.

• Multan Sultans picked Hardus Viljoen, Umar Gul, Umar Sadique and Ross Whiteley.

Speaking at the occasion earlier, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi congratulated the six franchises that will participate in the event and thanked them for helping enable the return of top-tier international cricket to Pakistani soil.

He also announced that the semi finals of the league will be played in Lahore, but that there is "a commitment to try our best to host the PSL 3 final in Karachi". He said that he has been assured that Karachi's National Stadium will be refurbished and made ready in time for the March finale of the series.

Speaking at the occasion, Ali Naqvi, owner of Islamabad United, expressed his happiness at the occasion and promised to pick a "good team". Waqar Younis, the bowling coach of the team, said the team "would not repeat its mistakes", maintain a top ranking and aim to take the tournament trophy home.

Peshawar Zalmi's Javed Afridi said the side would be on the lookout for new talent. His team had earlier decided to retain Darren Sammy as its captain for the next edition of the league.