THE Pakistan Super League is back on. Postponed last week following escalating Pakistan-India tensions, the remaining eight matches of the season will be played from May 17 with the final to be contested eight days later. The dates were announced by Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi after a US-brokered ceasefire agreement was reached with India over the weekend. The resumption of the glitzy T20 tournament follows that of the Indian Premier League across the border, which was also suspended, and will provide the nation an outlet following days of tension. The PSL, the PCB’s financial lifeline and a prime-time national attraction, had been targeted by India, with one of its drones crashing outside the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium hours before a match was to be played there last week.

Keeping in view the security situation, and the well-being of the foreign players, the PCB — hastily and perhaps due to lack of better judgement — announced it would shift the tournament to the UAE. But with the country on the brink of war at the time, course correction came when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif rightly ordered that the remainder of the competition be postponed until the situation improved. The move to postpone PSL, however, came after Board of Control for Cricket in India decided to suspend the IPL — stating that the nation took precedent over cricket — with reports across the border suggesting that the BCCI had asked its UAE counterparts to not allow the PCB to host the matches on its grounds. There were also reports across the border that the foreign players, who had left Pakistan on a chartered flight after the PSL was postponed, had said they would never come back to the country. None of that has happened. The foreign players are returning, including the Australians who had been reported as being sceptical about it, and the PSL, the country’s favourite pastime, is set for a grandstand finish.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2025