The 2024 Pakistan Super League (referred to as HBL PSL 9 for sponsorship reasons) was the ninth season of the
Pakistan Super League. Established by the
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2015 as a franchise
Twenty20 cricket league, it was played between six teams in a
double round robin and
page playoff system. The season took place across four cities in Pakistan from 17 February to 18 March 2024.
Lahore Qalandars, the two times defending champions, were eliminated in the group stage with last position. In the final,
Islamabad United defeated
Multan Sultans by 2 wickets, becoming first team to win the third title.
A Sports was the official broadcaster for the season.
Babar Azam
Mohammad Babar Azam (Urdu, pa, ; born 15 October 1994), is a Pakistani international cricketer and captain of the Pakistan national cricket team in all formats. Regarded as one of the finest batters in contemporary world cricket, he is the o ...
and
Usama Mir
Usama Mir (born 23 December 1995) is a Pakistani cricketer who plays as a leg-spiner for Central Punjab in domestic cricket.
He has recently joined Colwyn Bay Cricket Club in the North of Wales.
Domestic career
Mir has played for Khan Research ...
respectively achieved the awards for most runs and most wickets, while
Shadab Khan was entitled Player of the Tournament.
Background
As the
2024 Pakistani general election
General elections are scheduled to be held in Pakistan on 8 February 2024 to elect the members of the 16th National Assembly. The detailed schedule was announced by Election Commission of Pakistan on 15 December 2023.
The two major parties ar ...
and
Ramadan
, type = islam
, longtype = Religious
, image = Ramadan montage.jpg
, caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...
1445
AH were approaching, the Pakistan Cricket Board was concerned about the tournament. While they were planning to introduce two more teams into the league, they wanted to shift the tournament to the
United Arab Emirates. However, the franchise owners opposed these plans citing the financial reasons. There were proposals for the
Arbab Niaz Stadium
Arbab Niaz Stadium ( ur, ارباب نیاز سٹیڈیم), formerly known as Shahi Bagh Stadium ( ur, شاہی باغ سٹیڈیم), is a cricket stadium in Peshawar, Pakistan and home ground of Peshawar Zalmi. It is owned by Khyber Pakhtunkh ...
in
Peshawar to host the matches but these did not succeed due to security issues. On 6 February 2024,
Mohsin Raza Naqvi
Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi ( ur, ; born 28 October 1978) is a Pakistani media mogul who is the owner of City Media Group. He is serving as the incumbent caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab since 22 January 2023.
Early life and Media career
Naqvi ...
was elected as the PCB chairman, who also took the responsibility to supervise the preparations for the tournament.
Squads
The squads were finalized with the draft in Lahore on 13 December 2023, six days after the franchises announced their retained players. A supplementary and replacement draft took place on 29 January 2024.
Venues
The PCB announced the venues and fixtures on 12 January 2024. The tournament took place across four cities;
Karachi,
Lahore,
Multan and
Rawalpindi
Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...
.
Match officials
On 12 February 2024, the PCB announced the list of officials for league stage matches which included 4 members of
Elite Panel of ICC Umpires.
Umpires
* Abdul Moqeet
*
Ahsan Raza
*
Aleem Dar
*
Alex Wharf
*
Asif Yaqoob
Asif Yaqoob (born 11 November 1973) is a Pakistani cricket umpire. He has officiated in Pakistan Super League. He stood in his first Twenty20 International (T20I) match, between Pakistan and Australia on 26 October 2018. He stood in his first ...
*
Faisal Afridi
Faisal Afridi (born 31 December 1977) is a Pakistani cricket umpire and former cricketer. He played 53 first-class and 35 List A matches between 1998 and 2008. He is now an umpire and stood in the match between National Bank of Pakistan and Wat ...
*
Chris Gaffaney
Christopher Blair Gaffaney (born 30 November 1975) is a former New Zealand cricketer who played for the Otago Volts. A right-handed batsman, he played in 83 First-Class matches and 113 List-A matches. At present he serves as an international ...
* Imran Jawed
*
Michael Gough
*
Mohammad Asif
* Nasir Hussain
*
Rashid Riaz
*
Richard Illingworth
*
Ruchira Palliyaguruge
Ruchira Palliyaguruge (born 22 January 1968) is a Sri Lankan umpire and a former first-class cricketer. Ruchira played for Bloomfield Cricket and Athletic Club, Chilaw Marians Cricket Club, Saracens Sports Club, Nondescripts Cricket Club, Old Ca ...
*
Shozab Raza
*
Tariq Rasheed
Tariq Rasheed (born 10 March 1978) is a Pakistani former cricketer. He played in twenty first-class and twenty-two List A matches between 1996 and 2004. He is now an umpire, and stood in the match between Federally Administered Tribal Areas and ...
Referees
*
Ali Naqvi
*
Muhammad Javed
*
Roshan Mahanama
Marketing
Title anthem
The season's logo variant was revealed on 8 December 2023 with the nomenclature as HBL PSL 9, or
hashtag
A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...
#HBLPSL9, because
HBL Pakistan has been its titular sponsor since the league's first season. The title anthem "Khul Ke Khel" features
Ali Zafar and
Aima Baig.
Trophy
The season's trophy, named Orion, was unveiled on 13 February 2024 at Polo Ground,
Jilani Park, Lahore. It was made by Lahore-based Mahfooz Jewellers.
Broadcast and media
Since previous rights concluded after a two-year run, a public merit-based tender for the broadcast and streaming rights was opened on 9 January 2024 for the next two years.
ARY Digital Network
ARY Digital Network ( ur, ) is a subsidiary of the ARY Group. The ARY group of companies is a Dubai-based holding company founded by a Pakistani businessman, Haji Abdul Razzak Yaqoob (ARY). The network has a video on demand streaming service call ...
renewed the broadcast rights with a 45 percent increased bid, and Walee Technologies won the streaming rights with a 113 percent increased bid. While PCB revealed a list of global broadcasters on 16 February, this is the first season which
PTV Sports would not broadcast due to not winning the tender.
Ramiz Raja returned this year among seven commentators from Pakistan, and
Michael Clarke debuted among eight international commentators.
Zainab Abbas and
Erin Holland
Erin Victoria Holland (born 21 March 1989) is an Australian singer, television host, sports presenter, model, dancer, and charity worker. She won her national title, Miss World Australia, on 20 July 2013.
She has also featured as a sports prese ...
presented the season.
Cancer awareness
The
breast cancer awareness day and the
childhood cancer awareness day were observed on 5 and 12 March respectively, with the stadiums themed with the
pink ribbon and golden ribbon respectively.
League stage
Format
Each team played every other team twice in a double round robin format, with the top four teams in the points table advancing to the playoffs.
Points table
Summary
League progression
Fixtures
The PCB announced the fixtures on 12 January 2024.
[
]
Lahore and Multan
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Karachi and Rawalpindi
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Playoffs
Qualifier
----
Eliminators
Eliminator 1
----
Eliminator 2
----
Final
Awards and statistics
Most runs
* Source
ESPNcricinfo
Most wickets
* Source
End of season awards
The winner and the runner-up teams were awarded with crore
A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...
and crore respectively. Babar Azam and Usama Mir were presented with the Hanif Mohammad and Fazal Mahmood caps respectively with a complete installation of 6kW solar system for each. While Shadab Khan received lakh
A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ex ...
for being Player of the Tournament, the other awards included lakh cash prizes.
Team of the tournament
The team of the tournament was announced soon afterwards, with Shadab Khan as the captain and Mohammad Rizwan as the 12th player.
Controversies
Pro-Palestine remarks
Since KFC Pakistan was announced as a snack partner for the tournament on 17 February, people started criticizing the PCB in spite of allegations of genocide in the 2023 Israeli attack on Gaza, and hashtag #BoycottPSL became a social trending topic due to the original KFC's parent company Yum! Brands' affiliation with Pro-Israeli stances during the ongoing war. Afterwards, the spectators also complained that they were barred to carry the Pro-Palestinian banners in the stadium.
Arrests of fans
In another incident, fans were arrested for chanting slogans in support of Imran Khan during the matches. This was notable because Imran Khan, a former cricketer, former prime minister, and a prominent political leader, was in jail at that time, and referring to him was prohibited on Pakistani television and media.
DRS error
Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye is a computer vision system used in numerous sports such as cricket, tennis, Gaelic football, badminton, hurling, rugby union, association football and volleyball, to visually track the trajectory of the ball and display a profile o ...
, the technology used for the Decision Review System (DRS) in cricket, made a human error during the match between Quetta Gladiators and Islamabad United. Inaccurate ball tracking data resulted in incorrect results, causing frustration among players and fans alike.
Notes
References
External links
Series home
at ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pakistan Super League
2024 Pakistan Super League
2024 in Pakistani cricket
February 2024 events in Pakistan
March 2024 events in Pakistan
Pakistan Super Leage