The Pakistan Super League finally has a start date as the Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed that the tournament would begin on June 9 at the Shiekh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The final of the tournament will be played on June 24 as the national team is slated to depart for its UK tour on June 25.
The board also confirmed that there would be six doubleheaders, which mean that out of the 20 games to be played, 12 would be on doubleheaders day. And this also means that out of the 15 days dedicated to the tournament, there would be only two non-match days.
“The remaining matches of the PSL 6 will be played from June 9-24 in Abu Dhabi. There will be a total of six double-headers including one in the play-off stages,” Geo TV quoted a PCB spokesperson as saying.
Talking about the timings of the game, the spokesperson said that the timings for regular and doubleheaders day would be different. “Matches on the usual days will start at 9:00 pm PST while in the case of double-headers, the first match will start at 6:00 pm PST and the second match will be played at 11:00 pm PST,” he stated.
Originally slated to be held in February-March this year and entirely in Pakistan, the sixth edition of the PSL was postponed after several COVID-19 cases in the tournament bio-bubble. Only 14 of the original 34 games could be completed then.
It was then shifted to begin from June 1 at National Stadium in Karachi. However, the PSL franchise owners wanted the tournament in UAE so that there was no compromise on COVID-19. Due to various visa and flight delays, the scheduled start from June 5 could not be completed and hence the June 9 start was decided upon. The full schedule would be released by the PCB soon.