LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board has confirmed that the 2026-27 domestic cricket season will begin in August, with departmental cricket tournaments now starting in September – a shift from the December-January start seen in the previous two seasons.

The announcement comes alongside a steep increase in the annual participation fee departments must pay to compete, set out in a PCB letter to the departmental teams. The PCB has not commented publicly on the letter, though its contents are confirmed.

Under the new 2026-27 policy, Grade-I departments will now pay an annual participation fee of PKR15million, up from PKR5million in 2025 and PKR3million in 2024 — a 200% increase on last year’s fee. Grade-II Gold departments will pay PKR4.2 million, while Grade-II Silver departments will pay PKR4million.

The departmental structure comprises four tournaments: the four-day first-class President’s Trophy Grade-I, the List A President’s Cup, and the three-day President’s Trophy Grade-II Gold and Silver competitions.

Alongside the fee hike, the new policy hands the PCB significantly greater oversight of departmental cricket.

This includes setting minimum player salaries, mandating 12-month player contracts, running fitness testing, controlling guest player allocations, setting match fees, allowances and accommodation standards, and dictating squad composition — including a requirement for departments to include Under-21 players.

The eight-team President’s Trophy and President’s Cup are expected to carry added significance this season, with the PCB planning closer collaboration with departmental teams on competition standards, player development, and building stable, transparent revenue streams for domestic players. The President’s Cup, an eight-team One-Day tournament, will draw particular attention given its role in preparation for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2027.

The Guest Player concept, introduced for the first time this season, is aimed at giving centrally contracted and national pool players more game time alongside their departmental commitments.

On promotion and relegation, the finalists of the recently concluded President’s Trophy Grade-II Silver tournament in Faisalabad will move up to the Gold tier, while the bottom two Gold-tier teams will be relegated to Silver.

The winner of the ongoing President’s Trophy Grade-II Gold final between MIT Solutions and Kingsmen Academy will earn promotion to the September-starting President’s Trophy Grade-I, replacing the team that finished bottom of the previous edition, which will in turn drop down to Grade-II Gold.

The scale of the fee increase raises questions about how many departments will be willing or able to continue competing under the new framework. Departmental cricket itself has a chequered recent history: it was discontinued in 2019-20 in favour of a six-team regional model, before being restored in 2024 following the reinstatement of the PCB’s 2014 constitution. Departments now face a cost of participation more than four times higher than when the format returned just two years ago, at a point when many are still re-establishing their cricket programmes.

Some of the leading departments, such as United Bank, Muslim Commercial Bank, Habib Bank Limited, Allied Bank and National Bank, as well as Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC), Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP, renamed as ZTBL), Pakistan Automobile Corporation, Pakistan Public Works Department (PWD) had pulled the shutters on their cricket team before the 2019 when the six-team regional model was introduced.

The eight sides that featured in the 2025-26 President’s Trophy Grade-I included Ghani Glass, Khan Research Laboratory, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, Pakistan Television, Sahir Associates, State Bank of Pakistan, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited and Water and Power Development Authority.