The Pakistan Super League will be held as scheduled from March 26, but it will be held behind closed doors and at only two venues.
Published March 22, 2026
Pakistan’s premier T20 league will be held in empty stadiums due to the recent rise in oil prices, a senior Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official said.
The franchise’s home Pakistan Super League, which was scheduled to begin on Thursday, has also canceled its opening ceremony in Lahore due to fuel shortages caused by the Middle East conflict, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi announced on Sunday.
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The league was scheduled to be held in six cities, but from now on only Lahore and Karachi will host matches, with the opening game scheduled to be played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Pakistan is facing soaring oil prices caused by the US and Israel’s war against Iran and the subsequent escalation of the conflict across the region. The Pakistani government has asked its citizens to restrict their movement due to rising fuel prices.
“We don’t know how long this war will last,” Naqvi said.
“After asking people to limit their movements, we cannot have 30,000 people gathering in stadiums every day. We have decided that as long as this (oil) crisis continues, there will be no spectators at matches. This was a difficult decision, but it had to be taken. The opening ceremony will also be cancelled.”
Naqvi said the PCB will refund all tickets sold within 72 hours and will also compensate franchise owners for loss of income from gate receipts.
Naqvi apologized to the four cities that will not host PSL matches this season: Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Peshawar. “We need to limit our movements and we don’t want to waste resources,” he said. “I especially feel sorry for Peshawar, where PSL matches were scheduled to be held for the first time, but there would be no spectators anyway, so there was no reason to go to those cities.”
Naqvi said he consulted Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is also the patron of the PCB, and the eight franchises before finalizing the decision to hold the matches in empty stadiums.
Several foreign players have withdrawn from the PSL for personal reasons, including Australians Jake Fraser-McGurk and Spencer Johnson, South Africa’s Ottneil Baartman and West Indies’ Gudakesh Motier.
