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Pakistan’s massive international Test season is already underway, however it is unclear when the Quaid-e-Azam (QeA) Trophy 2024–25 season would begin. The PCB published a tentative schedule in August that called for Pakistan’s primary first-class tournament to start on October 20. However, the event’s future is still unknown as of the day before that date.
Even though the PCB had published in August the preliminary dates for all domestic contests, as recently as last month, a PCB official stated that the QeA was scheduled to adhere to its October 20 plan. Even the PCB officials in charge of domestic affairs are clueless as to when the tournament schedule would finally be made public.
PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi is still waiting to give the competition the go-ahead.
Although the chairman is operationally responsible for budgeting approval, which is one of the reasons for the delay, the PCB refuses to comment on what is preventing approval at this time. Still, the silence around the QeA stands in sharp contrast to the pomp that the board used to announce the Champions One-Day Cup, which took place in September.
Although the QeA has never been able to fully adhere to a schedule or format, it is unusual for it to start thus late in the season. The tournament has begun later than October 26 in all but two of the previous 15 years, despite the schedule typically being released well in advance of October. The competition started in September for the past two seasons; in the previous year, it started on September 10 and ended on October 26.
Pakistan is set to play more Test matches this season than at any previous point in the last century, which makes the scenario even more startling. The seven home Test matches they will play between August 2024 and January 2025 are already more than halfway done, with two Test matches in South Africa at the turn of the year.