PSL set for IPL clash in 2025 as ICC unveils FTP for 2023-27
With Champions Trophy scheduled in February 2025, Pakistan have earmarked March-May window for tenth edition of PSL.
Pakistan Super League (PSL) is staring hard at a clash with the mighty Indian Premier League (IPL) in the summer of 2025 after ICC unveiled the FTP of 2023-27.
What looks like an imminent clash is set in stone by Pakistan's packed home international season that year, headlined by the country hosting the ICC Champions Trophy in February 2025.
This has forced Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to earmark the March-May window in the calendar for its premier domestic T20 league.
The IPL's latest window in the ICC FTP now starts from the first week of March and concludes at the beginning of June.
A long-avoided clash with IPL has been critical to PSL's sustainance and rise as a league, making it easy for the world's prominent cricketing stars to visit Pakistan for the one-month tournament before travelling across to India for the globe's biggest T20 carnival.
PSL and IPL to run head-to-head in 2025?
According to the FTP revealed by the ICC on Wednesday (August 17) afternoon, Pakistan have a home limited-overs series against New Zealand and a tri-series featuring the Kiwis and South Africans lined-up ahead of the Champions Trophy in their bumper 2024-25 season before the focus shifts to the PSL.
There is no international series scheduled for Pakistan between March to May, a three-month window which the PCB would now have to avail for their premier domestic T20 tournament.
Go down this path, and PCB risk leaving the PSL as an after-thought for the top cream of the world's biggest overseas stars, who will rather warm-up the field for their respective IPL sides and continue their million-dollar deals with the ten franchises.
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A scenario where the PCB identifies alternate window for their home internationals versus New Zealand and South Africa and schedule PSL in the December-January window seems like the board's only solution to avoid the IPL clash at this stage.
But that would undermine PCB's longstanding efforts to revive international cricket in Pakistan, while making it extremely difficult to find alternate windows for the series in an excessively crowded calendar.
India have no such issues at hands. Enjoying an expanded three-month window for the IPL, they host Bangladesh, New Zealand and England during their 2024-25 home season and travel to Australia in between for a five-Test series.