LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday announced that the departmental cricket matches, part of the domestic season 2026-27, will start in September instead of the usual December-January start.
The cricket board, in a statement, confirmed that the country’s domestic season is set to begin in August, while the sectoral competitions will begin next month with the President’s Trophy Grade-1.
While the PCB did not reveal the schedule of other domestic matches, it shared plans to work closely with departments on several areas, including player development and revenue for domestic cricketers.
“PCB will work with departments across the four competitions to maintain optimal fitness, including pre-season fitness tests for player selection,” the cricket board said in a statement.
The central contracts were awarded in line with the board’s plans to make it mandatory for national players to participate in domestic cricket, which has undergone a major overhaul this year, with the PCB introducing the “guest player concept” to increase playing opportunities.
“The guest player concept will also be introduced for the upcoming department cricket season to increase playing opportunities for central contract and national pool players,” the PCB said.
The cricket board further shared the promotion and relegation block of teams for departmental competitions, including the President’s Cup Grade-I.
According to the PCB, the finalists of the recently concluded President Trophy Grade-II silver in Faisalabad are set to be promoted to the gold competition, while the bottom two teams in the latter tier will be eliminated.
Also, the winner of the President’s Trophy Grade-II Gold final between MIT Solutions and Kingsmen Academy will be placed in the President’s Trophy Grade-I and will replace the bottom team from the previous edition of the competition in Grade-II Gold.