In a press conference that marked Waqar Younis’ first media appearance alongside Mohsin Naqvi since his recent appointment, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that a new group of “Champions Cup” competitions will be added to the Domestic Calendar.
There are three tournaments which are to be played across all 3 formats, namely the Champions One Day Cup, Champions T20 Cup and the Champions First Class Cup. In total there will be 5 teams led by 5 legends across all competitions, with squads to have about 30 players each.
The Pakistan domestic season is slated to run from September 2024 to August 2025. With the addition of the three Champions events, the number of matches across men’s senior events will increase from 203 to 261. The PCB has also noted that the team operations are to be handed over to the aforementioned legends with them to also potentially act as owners.
Around 150 of the top-performing domestic players are set to be eligible for selection for the Champions Cup tournaments, with those selected also being given enhanced domestic contracts according to the following structure: Category 1: 40 players, PKR550,000 per month; Category 2: 50 players, PKR400,000 per month; Category 3: 60 players, PKR250,000 per month. Notably, the PCB also announced that International players are to play as well.
Famed domestic sides namely the Stallions, Wolves, Lions, Dolphins and Panthers are set to return as teams, with each side to be allocated a dedicated Regional High Performance Centre. The HPCs are named as High-Performance Centre in Faisalabad, Hanif Mohammad High-Performance Centre (Karachi), National Cricket Academy (Lahore), Inzamam-ul-Haq High-Performance Centre (Multan), and the High-Performance Centre in Sialkot.
Waqar Younis along with the 5 legends are set to form an advisory board. The Champions Cup is also to be enshrined and safeguarded by the PCB constitution. There was also the announcement of a Womens and U19 version, with teams to have 15 person squads. Further details to be announced in a week. The complete PCB press release can be found here