The Pakistan Cricket Board on Monday unveiled the domestic cricket calendar for the 2025-26 season, with an emphasis on increased competitiveness, highlighted by an eight-team Quaid-e-Azam Trophy tournament.
The new cricket season will start on 15 August with the Hanif Mohammad Trophy, which is a non-first-class tournament taking place in Karachi, Multan, Bahawalpur, and Rahim Yar Khan. The teams are split into two pools and will play 31 four-day matches. The top two teams will move on to the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, which is the main first-class competition this season.
The 12 regional teams playing in the Hanif Mohammad Trophy are the same ones that took part in last season’s Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. These teams are Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, FATA, Lahore Region Blues, Hyderabad, Karachi Region Blues, Karachi Region Whites, Multan, Quetta, D.M. Jamali, AJK, and Larkana.
The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy will have Lahore Region Whites, Sialkot, Peshawar, Islamabad, Abbottabad, Bahawalpur, and the two teams that qualify through the Hanif Mohammad Trophy. This tournament will start on 22 September with 29 matches in a single-league format and the final will be played from 3 to 7 November. The matches will be held at four venues in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, with more details to come later.
To make things more competitive, there will also be a qualifying round for the National T20. Ten teams – Abbottabad, Multan, Quetta, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, FATA, Larkana, D.M. Jamali, and AJK – will play in this round. They will be divided into two pools, and the top two teams will qualify for the National T20 (Super 10) tournament, which will take place in Faisalabad from 1 to 12 March.
The eight teams that have already qualified for the Super 10 are Karachi Region Whites, Lahore Region Whites, Peshawar, Karachi Region Blues, Sialkot, Islamabad, and Faisalabad.
Besides these, four departmental tournaments will also be held this domestic season: the President’s Trophy (four-day, first-class), President’s Cup (One-Day), President’s Trophy Grade II, and President’s Trophy Grade III.
