Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL/PSL
The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on two of the biggest T20 leagues in the world - Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League. While PSL 2021 concluded in UAE recently, IPL 2021 is set to conduct its second phase in the months of September-October. While the scheduling and planning of this year has been sorted, things are going to get interesting next year with both the rival leagues likely to be held at the same time in 2022.
Why could the clash of dates happen?
Pakistan Super League is usually conducted in the months of February-March, before Indian Premier League which takes place in the months of April-May. However, Pakistan are set to welcome Australia in February-March 2022 for Kangaroos' first ever tour to the country since 1998. Both the sides are scheduled to play 2 Tests, 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is in what is going to be a landmark series for Pakistan. As a result, PSL 2022 will have to be conducted in a different window.
With PCB looking for a 47-day window to conduct the next edition, there is a possibility of conducting the tournament prior to Pakistan's series against Australia. However, the weather conditions in that period of time are not very suitable (especially in Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi) to organize cricket matches. The only venue where matches can be conducted during that time is Karachi.
Hence, to ensure that PSL 2022 can be conducted across different places in Pakistan in front of fans, the board is reportedly looking at the window of March-April which is going to clash with IPL 2022. Although Pakistan players don't play IPL, the availability of overseas players like Faf du Plessis, Rashid Khan, Imran Tahir and many other big names (who play in both the tournaments) would become questionable. It will be interesting to see how things unfold in this episode in the coming months.