The ICC unveiled the Future Tours Program (FTP) for 2023-27.
This is due to the packed season for Pakistan as starting November 2024, have away tours of Australia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and New Zealand, before returning home for a tri-series in February 2025.
After that, they are scheduled to host their first ICC tournament in 30 years, the Champions Trophy in 2025. That forced the PCB to ink in a window for the tenth season of the PSL between March and May.
ICC unveils men's FTP for 2023-27, Team India to play 44 Tests in the period
Meanwhile, the IPL in 2025 will have an extended window given their expansion with 10 teams and possibly 96 matches, meaning the league will begin in early March and will continue into early June that year. Very less international cricket has been scheduled during this period and this meant PSL has no choice but to butt heads with the richest and most popular T20 league in the world.
PCB chief executive Faisal Hasnain said in a statement: “We have given attention to context, quality, and player workload while finalizing our Future Tours Programme 2023–2027 amid a tight and densely-packed cricket calendar. We have also made an effort to strike the right balance among the three formats so that they may continue to coexist in a useful way.”
Pakistan has begun hosting top full-member sides in the last three years, barring India, and is set to host all Full Members [bar India] in the 2023-27 Future Tours Programme. There are 27 Tests, including 13 at home, as part of the ICC World Test Championship cycles, 26 home ODIs out of a total of 47, and 27 T20Is out of a total of 56.
(ESPNCricinfo inputs)