The excitement of the cricket fans was at its peak when the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced to hold the seventh edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) draft in Lahore on 12 December, and start the tournament from 27 January 2022, in Karachi.
However, the excitement faded away for some of them when they saw their favorite players demoted from Platinum to Diamond in category renewal for local players.
Category Renewals for HBL PSL 7 are now out! 📣#HBLPSLDraft
Read more:https://t.co/xwbrQYphBZ pic.twitter.com/KzOAyamxGb
— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) December 3, 2021
The renewed list of the local players saw star cricketers like Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Amir, and Sohail Tanvir relegated to the Diamond category.
| Players | Previous Category | Current Category | Team |
| Shahid Afridi | Platinum | Diamond | Multan Sultans |
| Shoaib Malik | Platinum | Diamond | Peshawar Zalmi |
| Mohammad Hafeez | Platinum | Diamond | Lahore Qalandars |
| Mohammad Amir | Platinum | Diamond | Karachi Kings |
| Sohail Tanvir | Platinum | Diamond | Multan Sultans |
| Kamran Akmal | Diamond | Gold | Peshawar Zalmi |
Kamran Akmal, the second-highest run-scorer of the tournament, has been moved from the Diamond to Gold category.
However, some of the current international stars have been promoted to the top category on the basis of their recent performances.
The captain of 2021 champions Multan Sultan, Mohammad Rizwan, who is the top-scorer in the T20I format this year, was one of the biggest moves. He jumped from the Silver to Platinum category on the back of a stellar run throughout the year.
Asif Ali of Islamabad United (previously Gold), Lahore Qalandars’ Haris Rauf (previously Diamond) are other players to get notable gains.
Further, Multan Sultans’ Sohaib Maqsood, who was Player of PSL 6, and Haider Ali of Peshawar Zalmi have moved up from Silver and Gold categories to Diamond category, respectively.
