The draft for the tenth edition of the PSL will take place on January 11. The draft date is later than the historical PSL draft date, although this is partly due to the tournament window being pushed back a month; it will now take place over a four-week period between early April and mid-May, with the PCB no longer considering an IPL clash as a no-go zone.
While no further details on player availability have been announced, the draft is likely to heavily exploit unsold players in the IPL auction. One of the factors that influenced the move from the PSL to the IPL slot was the greater degree of certainty that players not present at the IPL would be available due to the near total absence of international matches during of this period.
During the IPL this year, David Warner, Kane Williamson, Akeal Hosein, Jonny Bairstow, Adil Rashid and Keshav Maharaj were among the unsold players, and although many of them were able to have international commitments during the IPL window PSL in other years this will not be the case. this will be the case this time.
This does not guarantee that all of these players will be available for the PSL. The England Cricket Board (ECB) is currently embroiled in a dispute with the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) after announcing it would not issue NOCs to first-class cricketers to play in a foreign league outside of the IPL which conflicts with the domestic season. . While the T20 Blast, which begins on May 29, will not clash with the PSL, the County Championship begins on April 4, and almost certainly will. The terms of any resolution will likely have a significant impact on the PSL, which has historically attracted much of the foreign talent from England.
The move to the IPL window, which PK Press Club first reported on in 2022, is one that the PCB is looking to make permanent as it attempts to move away from the increasingly narrow December-March window in which it currently operates, where it comes up against not only four other T20 leagues, but also a busy international cricket schedule. By contrast, moving to the April-May window means little or no full-member international cricket and only the IPL, against which, officials acknowledge, it cannot compete but can try to co-exist. And if, as expected, the PSL welcomes two new teams from 2026, there remains the possibility of hosting a longer season in this window.
In the medium term, this will also prevent the PSL from being played almost entirely during Ramadan, as would have been the case in 2025. As part of the lunar calendar, Ramadan begins each year ten days earlier on the Gregorian calendar. , which would therefore come into conflict. with the PSL’s usual February to March window for the next few years. Ramadan not only affects match schedules and crowd participation, it is also a big window for advertising; Playing the PSL during Ramadan would impact the league’s advertising and sponsorship revenue.
The decision to change windows was by no means the subject of universal agreement. PK Press Club understands that a number of franchise owners were skeptical, if not outright opposed to the move at the time. However, this decision did not necessarily require the support of the franchises, with the PSL board having the power to make a unilateral decision in the matter.
