In its seven years history, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) has provided the opportunity to young and upcoming players from all over the world to showcase their talents and make their way to international cricket. The likes of Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Asif Ali, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Sam Billings, Phil Salt, and plenty more rose to fame due to their participation in the league.
Meanwhile, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is a more established league and has the ability to offer huge sums of money to offer to world-class players from across the world. Top stars such as Pat Cummins, David Warner, Kagiso Rabada, Kane Williamson, Quinton de Kock, and Glenn Maxwell are some of the players that are associated with the league.
The money gap between the two leagues is no hidden secret and with the recently held IPL 2022 Auction, it has become even more apparent. To put this into perspective, Multan Sultans’ marquee platinum signing for PSL 2022, Tim David was sold to Mumbai Indians for a staggering $1,100,000.
Let’s have a look at the comparison of salaries of players playing in PSL and were drafted in IPL auction:
| Player | Base PSL Salary | IPL Salary |
| Rashid Khan | $130,000 | $2,000,000 |
| Liam Livingstone | $130,000 | $1,533,000 |
| Tim David | $130,000 | $1,100,000 |
| Chris Jordan | $130,000 | $480,000 |
| David Willey | $85,000 | $266,000 |
| Jason Roy | $130,000 | $266,000 |
| Alex Hales | $50,000 | $200,000 |
| Mohammad Nabi | $85,000 | $133,000 |
| Sherfane Rutherford | $85,000 | $133,000 |
| Noor Ahmed | $25,000 | $40,000 |
It is pertinent to mention here that players have to play almost double the number of matches in IPL as compared to PSL due to the number of teams. There are 6 teams in PSL while IPL 2022 will be a 10-team event. Both tournaments follow a double round-robin format meaning that all teams play every other team twice in the league stage.
PSL offers salary to the players according to categories.
| Category | Salary Range |
| Platinum | $130,000-170,000 |
| Diamond | $70,000-85,000 |
| Gold | $40,000-50,000 |
| Silver | $15,000-25,000 |
| Emerging | $5,000-7,500 |
Prior to the start of PSL 7, talks were held between Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman, Ramiz Raja, and the six franchise owners to adopt an auction model to increase the salary cap to attract more world-class players. But the negotiations were not fruitful due to the lack of financial power of the franchises. It is expected that PSL will shift to an auction model in the near future.