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The final draft of the ICC's latest Future Tours Programme (FTP), recently accessed by ESPNcricinfo, will provide space for an extended Indian Premier League (IPL) window from the next season, in a boost to the BCCI.
The IPL will now take place from the last week of March to the first week of June. Very little international cricket has been scheduled during that period over the next four years.
Between 2014 and 2021, the IPL was played between eight teams, with 60 matches a season. In 2022, the league expanded to 10 teams and 74 matches. After the sale of their media rights for the next five years in June, the BCCI had postulated a varying number of matches per season ranging from 74 games each in 2023 and 2024, 84 matches each in 2025 and 2026, and a maximum of 94 matches for the final year of the deal in 2027.
The ECB (England) and the CA (Australia) will also have their own T20 window during their home seasons for their premier white-ball events — the Hundred and the BBL respectively. But there will still be international cricket during these windows.
For England, a three-week window across July and August is clear of any international cricket. This will allow England's marquee white-ball players to play their white-ball tournaments, something the ECB has pushed for in scheduling discussions for this FTP.
Meanwhile, for Australia, Other than in January 2024, when West Indies are visiting for a full tour including six white-ball games every subsequent January in Australia's FTP is clear of white-ball internationals.
But for the PSL, things are more complex. Across the FTP, the PCB has left windows open for when the league is likely to be played: February-March (2023), January-February (2024) and December-January (2026-27). That might be a consequence of not wanting to clash with the Islamic month of Ramzan, which is on the lunar calendar and starts ten days earlier every year. As much as anything, avoiding the month is a commercial decision: Ramzan is a period of heavy ad spending for many brands, which impacts money spent on the PSL.
The real issue that arises is during the 2024-25 season. A home WTC series with England is followed by a succession of series in the southern hemisphere: in Australia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and New Zealand. That takes them to the start of February 2025, when there is a short ODI tri-series scheduled with New Zealand and South Africa at home.
Immediately after that, Pakistan then hosts the Champions Trophy, their first ICC event since the 1996 World Cup. That is due to end on March 9, by which time Ramzan will already have begun. After that is the only window available for the PSL (unless the white-ball only tours to Australia and Zimbabwe earlier are scrapped), meaning it not only takes place during Ramzan but could also potentially become the first league to go head-to-head, for some part, with the IPL.
