Lahore Qalandars

Franchise history

In 2015, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that the inaugural season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) would take place in February 2016 in the United Arab Emirates. On 3 December 2015, the PCB unveiled the owners of five city-based franchises. The Lahore franchise was sold to the Qatar Lubricants Company for US$24 Million for a span of ten years, making it the second most expensive team of PSL (after The Karachi Kings, which sold for US$26 million).

In 2016, under Players Development Program (PDP), the Lahore Qalandars franchise organised "Jazz Rising Stars" trials across eight Pakistani cities, to identify upcoming youth talent. Shortlisted players would travel to Australia and train with Sydney Thunder, while the top two performers would get the opportunity to play for the Qalandars. During the programme an ambidextrous fast bowler, Yasir Jan from Rawalpindi, was identified by former Pakistan fast bowler Aqib Javed.

2016 Season

After drafting star players such as Chris Gayle, Umar Akmal, Dwayne Bravo, Azhar Ali and Yasir Shah in the initial player draft.

Qalandars started the tournament with two consecutive losses against Karachi Kings and Peshawar Zalmi. Their first victory came against Quetta Gladiators The team won only two of their eight group stage matches, although they could still have qualified for the play-off section of the tournament if they had won their final group game against Islamabad United. A loss by five wickets saw Qalanders finish last in the first edition of the.Despite playing only seven games, Umar Akmal was the highest run scorer of the tournament and won the 'Best Batsman' award for his 335 runs with four fifties. During the finals, Qalandars were given the "Spirit of The Game" award for showing the best sportsmanship throughout the tournament and "Fair play award".

2017 season

Lahore Qalandars icon player in first season of the PSL Chris Gayle was traded for Sohail Tanvir of the Karachi Kings don the off-season trade window.Sohaib Maqsood was also traded for Aamer Yamin of Peshawar Zalmi. In September 2016, the team also signed New Zealand's former captain Brendon McCullum as their new captain during the off-season.

During the 2017 PSL players draft, Lahore picked a number of new players, including bowlers Yasir Shah and Sunil Narine. The team retained players such as Umar Akmal, Azhar Ali and Dwayne Bravo. Later Dwayne Bravo and Anton Devcich were replaced with Jason Roy and James Franklin while Shaun Tait was replaced with Chris Green.

In their opening game of the 2017 season, Lahore Qalandars lost a closely fought match to the Quetta Gladiators. In pursuit of 137, they managed 128 before being bowled out in the penultimate over. The team bounced back in the next match by beating defending champions, Islamabad United. A partnership of 71 runs between Jason Roy and Umar Akmal set up the Qalandar's chase of 159 before a quick cameo of 26(12) by Sunil Narine finished the game. However, in the following game, against Peshawar Zalmi, the Qalandars collapsed to 59 all-out inside 11 overs - the second shortest innings in T20 cricket history. But, Yasir Shah took 4 wickets for 7 runs in the defense to almost take his team to victory before the Zalmis prevailed by 3-wickets.

As the tournament progressed to Sharjah, the Qalandars registered their second win on the trot. That too against arch-rivals, Karachi Kings. The match was hard-fought between the two sides before the Qalandars prevailed by 7 runs in the final over. Fakhar Zaman, who was also adjudged man-of-the-match, set up his team's target of 180 through his quick-fire innings of 56(36). But in the next game, against Quetta Gladiators, the Qalandars were unable to defend a target of 201 despite being in control for most of the match. They allowed 78 runs to be leaked from the last 3.5 overs to end up on the losing side. However, following this loss, the Qalandars managed to win against Islamabad United by 1-wicket in a tense contest that saw them chase 146 runs in 19.3 overs. Umar Akmal anchored his team's innings by scoring 66 off 42 balls before Grant Elliott finished the chase with a six over midwicket.

As the tournament shifted back to Dubai, the Qalandars suffered back to back defeats against Peshawar Zalmi and arch-rivals, Karachi Kings. Against the Zalmis, the team couldn't chase down 167 after a drastic collapse from 38-1 to 43-6 and fell short by 17 runs. Following this, the Qalandars lost a must-win game against the Kings by 5-wickets. After putting up a respectable target of 156 on board, the team leaked 14-runs from the final over - including sixes on the last two balls to end up on the losing side. These two loses meant that the Qalandars finished at the bottom of the table after the league stage and were, in return, knocked out from the play-off proceedings for the second consecutive year.

Team identity

The Lahore franchise was launched on 12 December 2015 by owner Fawad Rana. The "Q" in the Qalandars was linked to both represent both Qatar and QALCO and Rana added that the name was chosen to highlight the Sufi culture of Lahore – "Qalandar" is a common term used in Pakistan to describe Sufi mystics or saints whose shrines attract millions of devotees and tourists. The team's logo features a Sufi performing the famous Sufi whirling with three stumps to his right and a cricket ball in the bottom, and is meant to represent the Sufi culture of the region

The Qalandars' kit colors in first season was red and black Qalandars launched new kits ahead of second season,with the red turning green at grand musical event. Mobilink was the team's first shirt sponsor and the title sponsor. Alkaram, a Textile Mill situated in Karachi, was announced as another sponsor and the media partner of the team is Geo Tv. Royal Palm is team's hospitality partner.

The anthem of the team in 2016 season was "Dama Dam Mast" released in two versions; one by Asrar and other by Nabeel Shaukat Ali. The official song for 2017 season "Dama Dam Mast Lahore Qalandars" was sung by Shafqat Amanat Ali.

Famous Film star Shaan is team's brand ambassador for 2017 season.

Current squad

Players with international caps are listed in bold.

Captains

Source: ESPNcricinfo, Last updated: 7 March 2017

Head-to-head record

Source: ESPNCricinfo, Last updated: 7 March 2017

Awards and achievements