Pakistan’s premier domestic one-day competition has been rebranded as the Champions Cup, two years on from when it launched with a glitzy makeover, increased prize money and featured the country’s premier cricketers. This event is nowhere near as ambitious in scale as the one in 2024, but draws the biggest domestic players available, and will see seven matches played between four teams. It runs from August 11 to 18, with all games taking place at the Multan Cricket Stadium. The tournament will be played on a single-round robin phase with a final.
Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan will captain the four sides, known as Pakistan Gold, Pakistan Greens, Pakistan Whites and Pakistan Blues respectively. The teams feature several players to have played international white-ball cricket in Pakistan.
Some are unavailable owing to their red-ball commitments; the Test side will be in England at the time in preparation for a three-Test series. Mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed, who is currently playing The Hundred with Sunrisers Leeds, will also not take part in the domestic competition.
“We have arranged this high-profile 50-over competition to provide ample playing opportunities to our best available pool of players for ICC Cricket World Cup 2027 preparations,” Aqib Javed, PCB’s director high performance, said in a statement posted to the PCB’s website. “The teams have been assembled keeping in mind the roles of the players in the 50-over game. I wish the best of luck to all the teams and look forward to watch some highly-competitive contests in Multan.”
The Champions Cup was billed in 2024 as the jewel in Pakistan’s domestic cricket calendar, with mandatory participation for all domestic players, and eye-watering sums paid to the five mentors appointed to the five sides that played. The following year, however, it wasn’t held under the same branding at all, with a low-key white-ball domestic competition held instead.
