PSL to clash with IPL again in 2027

The tournament was held in February and March from its inception in 2016 until the 2024 edition, but had to be pushed into the April-May window from 2025 because of ICC tournaments - the Champions Trophy hosted by Pakistan last year and the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka this year.

The PCB and franchises deliberated on the possibility of holding PSL 12 in January and February in a governing council meeting last month after Walee Technologies - which owns the media rights until 2029 and also one of the two new teams, Rawalpindiz - lamented the lack of broadcasting revenue in the current window.

Walee Technologies contended that most advertisers exhaust their marketing and TV ad budgets during the holy month of Ramadan, leaving little for the broadcasters. The last two PSL seasons have been held after Ramadan and the next year's edition will also be staged after the month, which will start in early February and run till early March.

The January-February window was considered logistically unviable as Punjab, where three of the four traditional PSL venues - Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi - are located, witnesses harsh winters in those months with visibility being severely impacted by fog. It was also deemed unsuitable as the business end of the tournament was going to fall in Ramadan, but that was also the case for the 2024 edition.

There was no mention of the venues in the PCB media release. The tournament has been mostly staged in Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi since it was brought into Pakistan in its entirety in 2020, having until then been hosted or co-hosted by the UAE.

The PCB added Faisalabad and Peshawar as the two new venues for last year's edition, but had to limit PSL 11 to Lahore and Karachi because of the government's fuel-preservation measures in the wake of the West Asia crisis. That edition, except for the final, was played behind closed doors.