Pakistan's T20 league began in exile and grew into a billion-rupee business
The Pakistan Super League played its first match in February 2016 not in Pakistan but in the United Arab Emirates, after two earlier attempts to launch it had failed. A decade later its franchises change hands for billions of rupees, and its trophies are handcrafted at home by teams of artisans.
The Pakistan Cricket Board announced the Twenty20 league in September 2015, recruiting former captains Wasim Akram and Rameez Raja as ambassadors. Rights to the first five franchises, each named for a provincial capital or the federal capital, sold that December for a combined 93 million US dollars over ten years. The first season, staged in the UAE, turned a profit of 2.6 million dollars. Unlike leagues that auction players, the PSL recruits through a draft, as many North American sports leagues do.
Growth came in steps. Multan Sultans joined as a sixth team in 2018, bought for 5.2 million dollars a year, then the most expensive rights in the league, though the board later cancelled that deal over payment problems and resold it. The league's arrival coincided with international cricket gradually returning to Pakistan. Its format is a double round-robin, with every side meeting each other twice before the top four enter playoffs, and it is credited with introducing the decision review system to T20 cricket before the sport's governing body adopted it.
When the original ten-year deals ended, franchise fees were revalued and switched from dollars to rupees. Lahore Qalandars now pay the most, with Quetta Gladiators at the other end of the scale. The league grew to eight teams for 2026, adding Hyderabad and Sialkot. A turbulent few months followed: the Multan franchise sold for a record 2.45 billion rupees and moved to Rawalpindi, and then the Sialkot team was rebranded as the Multan Sultans.
Lahore Qalandars and Islamabad United lead with three titles each. The trophy changes often; Swarovski made the early ones, and the 2026 Infinity trophy took 18 artisans 2,600 hours, with eight gemstones for the eight teams.
Source: Pakistan Super League
