Pakistan likely to be excluded from next year's World Club Championship: reports

Pakistan is likely to be excluded from the inaugural edition of the World Clubs T20 Championship, set to launch next year with the backing of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and its chairman, Jay Shah.

According to a source familiar with the developments, the Pakistan Super League (PSL) champions are unlikely to receive an invitation to the high-profile tournament. 

This exclusion stems from the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) absence at a crucial meeting held last month on the sidelines of the Cricket Connect Summit in London.

“The PCB was invited to send the PSL CEO to the meeting, but no one showed up,” the source revealed. 

The meeting was reportedly attended by the CEOs of several leading franchise-based T20 leagues and was convened by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) with the ICC’s support.

Key representatives from the Big Bash League (BBL), SA20, The Hundred, Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Major League Cricket (MLC), and the UAE’s ILT20 were present to discuss the proposed tournament’s structure, scheduling, and operational framework.

“The Pakistan Cricket Board was invited to send its CEO of the PSL for a meeting held on the sidelines of the cricket connect meeting in London last month but no one showed up," the source said.

The source confirmed that the first edition of the World Clubs T20 Championship will feature five teams and, notably, will not include any side from the Indian Premier League (IPL), despite support from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“Though the planned event has the backing of the Indian board but for the inaugural championship there will be no IPL participation,” the source added.

The push to expedite the launch of the World Clubs Championship is believed to be a strategic response to Saudi Arabia’s proposed cricket league, which aims to attract global talent with an initial $400 million investment. 

The World Clubs Championship is expected to follow a format similar to the now-defunct Champions League T20 (CLT20), which ran from 2009 to 2015.

CLT20 brought together top T20 teams from around the world but was eventually discontinued due to low viewership, lack of sponsorship, and IPL teams’ dominance—Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings each claimed two titles.

In recent years, the global T20 landscape has evolved rapidly. Almost every major cricketing nation now hosts its own successful franchise league, with soaring fan engagement. 

Countries like India, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa, England, the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, the UAE and the USA all feature competitive T20 tournaments.

The USA has emerged as a significant player with the launch of Major League Cricket (MLC), and Guyana recently introduced the Global T20 Super League, featuring franchises such as the Guyana Amazon Warriors (CPL), Rangpur Riders (BPL), Lahore Qalandars (PSL), Hampshire (Vitality Blast), and Victoria (Australia).