Rohit Kumar
NEW DELHI, Mar 23: The Pakistan Super League (PSL) scheduled to begin from Thursday is in disarray. The League’s 2026 season seems to be in jeopardy considering a threat issued by an armed opposition group in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday had announced that the PSL in the current year would be held in empty stadiums and would be restricted to only two cities of Lahore and Karachi. The PCB’s decision was announced by its chairman and the country’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi who attributed it to the rising fuel prices in the consequence of the on-going West Asia.
Sources on Monday said Mr Naqvi’s reasoning of soaring fuel prices for keeping the crowd away from the matches and restricting the traveling of the players by keeping the matches only in two stadiums, was only “half-truth.” The real reason was the threat issued by the armed opposition group in Pakistan, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which has asked all the foreign players to immediately withdraw from the PSL or be prepared to face “dire consequences.”
The group has issued a public statement warning overseas stars such as David Warner, Steve Smith, and Daryl Mitchell against participating in the PSL In a chilling ultimatum, the group stated that players’ safety cannot be guaranteed if they travel to Pakistan for the T20 league. In the note, the armed group asked Warner, Smith and other overseas stars to “withdraw immediately” from the PSL.
Explaining their stance, the group claimed they were not opposed to cricket as a sport, but argued that the prevailing security situation in Pakistan was unsuitable for staging a high-profile tournament involving international players. “We want to advise the relevant cricket boards not to send their players to Pakistan. If something happens to them, it will not be our responsibility. We have already issued our warning,” a commander of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar told the media.
On the question of the overseas players and their respective boards ignoring the warning, the commander said, “We will do whatever is in our capacity, but we will not let the matches happen. We will do our best to ensure that the tournament is disrupted and the players do not take to the field.”
This year’s PSL features several high-profile internationals, including Australia’s David Warner, Steve Smith, and Adam Zampa, England’s Moeen Ali, and New Zealand’s Devon Conway among others even after at least two overseas players, one each from Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka withdrew from the PSL to join the India Premier League (IPL) beginning from Saturday.
While the PCB has already implemented strict measures, the recent changes to the 2026 format have not been officially attributed to these threats. With the opening game is just two days away, all eyes are now on the PCB and the international stars to see how they navigate this developing situation.
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