ICC to Decide Fate of World Club T20 Championship

Pakistan remains neither excluded nor included because no official tournament exists.

By DTD- On Jul 8, 2025

ISLAMABAD: The fate of the proposed World Club T20 Championship remains in limbo, with sources confirming that no official decision has been made regarding its launch.

The tournament is an ambitious idea aimed at bringing together champion teams from various domestic T20 leagues around the world. Despite recent speculation suggesting that Pakistan’s PSL champions, Lahore Qalandars, had been left out of the proposed competition, sources close to the situation have strongly dismissed those claims as unfounded.

“There has been no decision to hold a tournament involving T20 league-winning teams,” a source familiar with the discussions told reporters on Monday. “Therefore, the question of excluding Pakistan doesn’t arise.”

Contrary to earlier reports, the topic of a World Club T20 Championship was not on the agenda during recent international cricket meetings held in England. In fact, there were no formal discussions at all about such a competition, nor were there any representatives from the PSL or the IPL present at those meetings.

While the concept has drawn comparisons to the now-defunct Champions League T20 (CLT20)—which was played from 2009 to 2015 and featured top franchise teams from India, Australia, South Africa, and other nations—the proposed revival of a similar competition has yet to gain any formal traction.

For any such tournament to materialize, it would require approval and coordination from the ICC. So far, the global governing body has neither made a public statement nor initiated formal steps toward creating a global franchise champions event.

Several leading cricketing nations, including India, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa, England, the West Indies, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, run successful T20 leagues, and in theory, the commercial appeal of bringing the best teams together would be too good to pass up. But without a clear structure, agreed timeline, or ICC backing, the idea remains just that, an idea.

For now, Pakistan remains neither excluded nor included because no official tournament exists. Any updates on such a competition will depend entirely on the ICC’s intent and whether major boards are willing to collaborate on what would be a high-profile but highly complex global event.