International superstars like Travis Head, Kagiso Rabada, David Miller, and Pat Cummins were not retained by their respective franchises ahead of the 2025 MLC Draft.
Defending MLC champions Washington Freedom opted to retain 15 players, the most in the league. These include six overseas players – captain Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Jack Edwards, Marco Jansen, Rachin Ravindra, and Lockie Ferguson. However, they released Head. Freedom were heavily reliant on Head in the 2024 season: he scored 336 runs in nine matches at an average of 48 and a strike rate of 173. Akeal Hosein and Andrew Tye are the other notable names not retained by the franchise.
LA Knight Riders extended their loyalty to their across-league legends, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell, alongside Spencer Johnson. They retained several of their domestic players but let go of overseas players like Miller, Adam Zampa, Jason Roy, Shakib Al Hasan, Josh Little, and Waqar Salamkheil.
Similarly, Seattle Orcas have retained only Heinrich Klassen and Ryan Rickelton, letting go of players like Quinton de Kock, Nandre Burger, Shubham Ranjane, Michael Bracewell, Imad Wasim, Wayne Parnell, Nathan Ellis, and Obed McCoy.
While revamping their domestic contingent, MI New York have retained four important overseas players in Nicholas Pooran, Kieron Pollard, Trent Boult, and Rashid Khan. At the same time, they did let go of Tim David, Dewald Brevis, Romario Shepherd, Rabada, and Anrich Nortje, significantly weakening their fast bowling and lower middle order.
Texas Super Kings have decided to retain Faf du Plessis, their leading run-scorer, alongside the likes of Devon Conway, Marcus Stoinis, and Noor Ahmad. In search of their first MLC trophy, they decided to part ways with Dwayne Bravo, Mitchell Santner, Aaron Hardie, Naveen-ul-Haq, Daryl Mitchell, Aiden Markram, and Ottniel Baartman.
San Francisco Unicorns released Cummins, Matt Henry, Liam Plunkett, Abrar ahmed, Josh Inglis, and Sherfane Rutherford, but have retained Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matt Short, Haris Rauf, and Finn Allen.
Full list of retained players by all six MLC franchises
LA Knight Riders: Ali Khan, Adithya Ganesh, Unmukt Chand, Nitish Kumar, Corne Dry, Saif Badar, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Matthew Tromp, Spencer Johnson, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine
MI New York: Ehsan Adil, Nosthush Kenjige, Monank Patel, Heath Richards, Rushil Ugarkar, Sunny Patel, Kieron Pollard, Nicholas Pooran, Rashid Khan, Trent Boult
San Francisco Unicorns: Corey Anderson, Hassan Khan, Liam Plunkett, Carmi Le Roux, Brody Couch, Karima Gore, Juanoy Drysdale, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Haris Rauf, Finn Allen, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matthew Short
Seattle Orcas: Harmeet Singh, Cameron Gannon, Ali Sheikh, Ayan Desai, Aaron Jones, Heinrich Klaasen, Ryan Rickelton
Texas Super Kings: Joshua Tromp, Calvin Savage, Milind Kumar, Mohammad Mohsin, Zia-ul-Haq, Saiteja Mukkamalla, Faf du Plessis, Devon Conway, Noor Ahmad, Marcus Stoinis
Washington Freedom: Andries Gous, Mukhtar Ahmed, Obus Pienaar, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ian Holland, Amila Aponso, Justin Dill, Lahiru Milantha, Yasir Mohammad, Marco Jansen, Glenn Maxwell, Lockie Ferguson, Rachin Ravindra, Steven Smith, Jack Edwards
