PCB postpones West Indies series, adds T20Is vs New Zealand in build-up to T20 World Cup

Pakistan's home series of two Test matches and three T20Is against West Indies has been pushed back from January-February 2024 to January 2025, and has been replaced by an away series of five T20Is against New Zealand.

With the tweak in the Future Tours Programme, Pakistan will be playing 19 T20Is between now and the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup, to be held in the West Indies and the USA in June 2024, ten of them against New Zealand alone - five away and five at home - and the rest against Netherlands (three), Ireland (two) and England (four).

A separate series in New Zealand, of three ODIs and five T20Is, has been pushed back from January 2025 to April 2025. It also means that Pakistan have an entire home season later this year without a single Test in it. They tour Australia for a three-Test series at the end of the year - their first Tests after the current series against Sri Lanka - and then will not play any Tests until August 2024, when they host Bangladesh for two Tests.

This was on the cards, as reported last month by ESPNcricinfo, since the PSL is slotted for February and March. As things stand, Pakistan will play three Test matches in Australia between December 2023 and January 2024, and the clutter in early 2024 has been reduced somewhat with the five-match T20I series in New Zealand to be held in January. After completing the Tests in Australia, Pakistan will fly directly to Auckland to play the T20Is. In April, after the PSL, the teams will play a reciprocal five-T20I series in Pakistan.

The PSL now runs for 34 days. And because of the holy month of Ramadan, the available window is only from February 12 to March 10.

The PCB has also requested the Emirates Cricket Board to pull back their ILT20 by ten days to avoid overlapping with the PSL. It is likely that the PCB will not object to its players signing contracts with ILT20 teams, which it had done in 2023, the inaugural edition of the tournament.

The discussions between the PCB and the Emirates Cricket Board were conducted during Najam Sethi's tenure as PCB chairman, but is expected to stand despite the change of guard at the PCB.

The 2023-24 season
July: Pakistan in Sri Lanka (two Tests)
August: Pakistan in Afghanistan (three ODIs)
September: ODI Asia Cup in Pakistan and Sri Lanka
October-November: ODI World Cup in India
December-January: Pakistan in Australia (three Tests)
January: Pakistan in New Zealand (five T20Is)
April: New Zealand in Pakistan (five T20Is)
May: Pakistan in the Netherlands (three T20Is), in Ireland (two T20Is), and in England (four T20Is)
June: T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies

The 2024-25 season
August: Bangladesh in Pakistan (two Tests)
October: England in Pakistan (three Tests)
November: Pakistan in Australia (three ODIs and three T20Is)
November-December: Pakistan in Zimbabwe (three ODIs and three T20Is)
December-January: Pakistan in South Africa (two Tests, three ODIs, three T20Is)
January: West Indies in Pakistan (two Tests)
February: New Zealand and South Africa in Pakistan (ODI tri-series)
February-March: Champions Trophy in Pakistan
April: Pakistan in New Zealand (three ODIs and five T20Is)
May: Bangladesh in Pakistan (three ODIs and three T20Is)