Pakistan T20 cricket league to be held in empty stadiums amid oil crisis

Karachi—Pakistan’s marquee domestic T20 competition, the Pakistan Super League, will begin behind closed doors on Thursday after the Pakistan Cricket Board scrapped crowd access across all venues and cancelled the traditional opening ceremony in Lahore, citing an escalating national fuel emergency triggered by the Middle East conflict.

PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, speaking to reporters on Sunday, said the board had been forced to redraw the entire schedule after Islamabad directed citizens to limit non-essential travel to conserve dwindling oil supplies. “We can’t ask people to restrict their movements and then have 30,000 people in stadiums every day,” Naqvi said. “As long as this crisis is ongoing, we will not have crowds at matches.”

The league, originally set to rotate through six host cities, has been compressed into two hubs—Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium and Karachi’s National Stadium—with the tournament opener scheduled in Lahore. Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Peshawar have lost their fixtures, and the PCB will refund all ticket sales within 72 hours while compensating franchises for lost gate revenue.

Naqvi, who secured approval for the changes from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his capacity as PCB patron, offered an explicit apology to the four de-listed venues, noting that Peshawar had been poised to stage PSL matches for the first time. “There will be no crowds anyway, so there was no reason to go to those cities,” he explained.

The fuel crunch, linked by officials to the widening US-Israel conflict with Iran, has sent oil prices surging across Pakistan and prompted emergency conservation measures. “We don’t know how long this war will continue,” Naqvi added, underscoring the uncertainty that framed the board’s decision.

Player availability has also taken a hit. Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk and Spencer Johnson, South Africa’s Ottneil Baartman and West Indies spinner Gudakesh Motie have all withdrawn from their respective squads for personal reasons, further clouding the build-up to a tournament already stripped of its customary fanfare.

Despite the upheaval, the PCB insists the competition will proceed on schedule, with televised matches intended to provide a diversion for a nation now counting every litre of fuel.