Domestic cricket in Pakistan just took an unexpected detour. The PCB has yanked ongoing President’s Trophy Grade 1 matches out of Peshawar and Abbottabad, shuffling them to Sheikhupura and Lahore. It’s a rare mid-tournament upheaval, triggered not by weather or pitch complaints, but by a state of emergency declared in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The political storm broke when the federal cabinet, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, secured presidential approval for the emergency measures. The fallout was swift and harsh: Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and several cabinet members were detained, as confirmed by junior interior minister Talal Chaudhry. With the province under strict governor’s rule, holding public sporting events at Imran Khan Stadium and Abbottabad Cricket Stadium became untenable.
So the PCB scrambled. Ghani’s fixture against Hyderabad Kingsmen Academy was moved to Rana Naveed Academy in Sheikhupura. The SNGPL versus OGDCL clash is now at the LCCA Ground in Lahore, right next to Gaddafi Stadium. Both games kick off on October 14. Meanwhile, matches in Islamabad and Rawalpindi proceed as planned, creating a fragmented calendar that splits the league’s penultimate round across three distinct regions.
This disruption hits at a critical juncture. The tournament is deep in its league stage, with the final round already pushed back a day to October 19. Lahore’s LCCA will host Markhor IT Solutions against Pakistan TV, while the National Cricket Ground in Islamabad sees Hyderabad Kingsmen Academy face State Bank of Pakistan. The PCB had been trying to expand domestic cricket beyond traditional hubs—Peshawar had just returned to the senior calendar after seven years away. That experiment is now on hold, buried under the weight of political instability.