MasterstrokeSquad building and management
Overseas players
Franchise leagues cap how many foreign players a club may field, usually four in the XI, so every overseas slot has to count.
Overseas players are the foreign internationals a franchise signs, and every league limits how many a club may hold in its squad and field in its XI.
The IPL allows a club up to eight overseas players in its squad and four in the playing eleven, and most leagues use similar numbers. The limit exists to protect the development of domestic players, and it has a large effect on the auction: overseas stars are scarce and expensive, but a club can only use four of them, so the fifth is a luxury on the bench. The rule also interacts with the impact player: a foreign substitute may only come on if the side started with fewer than four overseas players.
The strategic question is where to spend the four slots. A common shape is two overseas batters and two overseas bowlers, but the right answer depends on the domestic talent available. If the local market is deep in batting and thin in fast bowling, the overseas slots should go to seamers. Availability matters too, because international duty pulls overseas players away mid-season, and a club that has built its XI around four of them can find itself with two.
In Masterstroke: five leagues across 11 nations, each with its own quota, so the same player can be a luxury in one league and a necessity in another.