HBL PSL 7 set to take place in Jan-Feb 2022 despite clash with BBL

After the successful completion of HBL PSL 6, the Pakistan Cricket Board and HBL Pakistan Super League franchisees agreed on Friday that the seventh edition of the HBL PSL will be held in January and February next year.

The decision to prepone the event has been taken due to Australia’s tour of Pakistan in February and March 2022. 

“We will have to sit down with the franchises and discuss this [PSL 7]. Australian team is visiting after 22 years. If we miss this window, they won’t return for another three or four years as their Future Tours Programme is already decided,” said PCB CEO Wasim Khan in an exclusive interview with Cricket Pakistan, back in June.

“In January the weather in Karachi is decent and in early February we can shift the tournament to Punjab but we still need to do planning in this regard,” he added.

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The event will clash with the 2021-22 edition of the Big Bash League, scheduled from December 5 till January 28, which could mean that many top T20 players will miss the first few matches of the HBL PSL 7.

Holding the event after the Australia tour would have resulted in a clash with the Indian Premier League, which takes places in April and May, and consequently affect player availability.  

During a teleconference in which the PCB was represented by Chief Executive Wasim Khan, Chief Operating Officer Salman Naseer, GM Commercial Imran Ahmed Khan and PSL Senior General Manager Operations Usman Wahla – the two parties also discussed a way forward in regards to the new commercial rights cycle and established a framework for rights evaluation and their subsequent sale.

The franchisees representatives who attended the meeting included Salman Iqbal and Tariq Wasi (both Karachi Kings), Sameen Rana (Lahore Qalandars), Haider Azhar (Multan Sultans), Nadeem Omar (Quetta Gladiators), Nausherwan Effandi (Peshawar Zalmi) and Ali Naqvi (Islamabad United).