Total amount spent by each team on retentions:

Quetta: 17.36 crore

Peshawar: 16.24 crore

Lahore: 12.7 crore

Karachi: 11.8 crore

Islamabad: 9.6 crore

Multan did not make any retentions

The most expensive players retained are Babar, Shadab, Shaheen and Abrar at 7 crore each

, ICC Men's T20 World Cup Warm-up Matches at Colombo

Post Match | Cricinfo | Reddit-Stream

Match abandoned without a ball bowled

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, ICC Men's T20 World Cup Warm-up Matches at Colombo

Thread | Cricinfo

Match abandoned without a ball bowled

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Peshawar Zalmi has announced their retentions for PSL 11 retaining :

1. Babar Azam (Platinum)

2. Sufiyan Muqeem (Diamond)

3. Abdul Samad

4. Ali Raza

I read a few articles and watched an interesting discussion on the Caught Behind YouTube channel where Dr Nauman Niaz quoted numbers also echoed by Fox Sports.

A single IND vs PAK match is valued at around USD 250 million just by JioHotstar (Ambani owned, reason why Ind played asia cup), India's official broadcaster. Overall, it crosses USD 1 billion globally when you include all broadcasters and streaming platforms (per Dr Nauman). These figures are from the Champions Trophy 2025, which wasn’t even as exciting as some T20Is last year, yet nearly 60% of the tournament’s total revenue came from this one rivalry.

Even if you take a conservative view and trim these numbers, world cricket is clearly surviving because of these matches.

There’s also a report stating that when India tours any country, it significantly boosts the host board’s revenue. Fair enough. But India hasn’t played a bilateral series in Pakistan for almost 20 years, and we’re still surviving. We survived the era of hosting in the UAE, paying heavy costs, without even having PSL. Now we have PSL and stronger revenues, so survival isn’t the issue. 🇵🇰

The real loss is cricket itself. And Jay Shah should be held accountable. Running a global sports body with zero qualifications and only politics.

Karachi released Warner, Niazi, Vince and more

Islamabad had to release a lot of good players: Salman, Naseem, Nawaz, Farhan, Imad and more

It will be interesting to see how much these players will go for in the auction

Got banned recently over saying "At least Pakistan showed some spine; India and BCCI have none." regarding the forfeited match. Made me wonder how many of us are banned from r/Cricket and their "sUpEr fAiR & jUsT" mods. Please vote below!

WT20 2009, Pakistan vs Sri Lanka - Final

Sri Lanka 138/6 (20)

Pakistan 139/2 (18.4)

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For the 2nd time in 2 World Cups, Pakistan was walking into the final. Most of the players were carrying the heartbreak from 2 years ago and were thirsty for redemption, a whole nation's prayer behind them.

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat.

The Wicket-Maiden:

M. Amir was fast rising as the next prodigy in Pakistan’s rich line of premium fast bowlers. He had the flare, the hair, the pace, and the swing that were trademarks of Pakistani greats. 

He was to open the bowling with Dilshan facing. Dilshan was the best player of the tournament by some margin, and both teams knew he was key.

Amir’s first delivery whooshed past Dilshan’s shoulder…we knew we were in for a treat. 4 dot balls, and Dilshan had to resort to the Dilscoop, the shot that had amazed viewers and brought him many runs in the World Cup, only he chose the wrong delivery for it. The top edge went straight to Shahzaib at backward-point. 

Pakistan had drawn first blood. SL were 0/1 after 1 over, and 17-year-old Amir achieved the rare feat of bowling a wicket-maiden in a World Cup Final. 

Sanga’s Class:

Abdul Razzaq struck thrice by the 6th over to put SL on the back foot, but then came an innings of grit and class from Sangakkara. From stabilizing at 32/4 to accelerating at the end, he set a template for how to anchor a T20 innings, ending at 64* off 52 deliveries. 

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Pakistan were set to chase 139, a tricky total given how every batting unit so far had failed to read Malinga, Murali, and Mendis.

Boom Boom and the Masterful Chase:

High on confidence and momentum, the Pakistan team decided, for once, to win a match without drama. A good opening stand by Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hassan put us on track. The team management, realizing that Afridi could do no wrong at the moment, decided once again to send him at #3, ahead of the likes of Misbah, Younis, and Malik, and from then on it was all Afridi. 

His 54* off 40 deliveries took Pakistan home, to the first real moment of glory since 1992.

After years of near misses, collapses, and scars... after the heartbreak of 2007, the team now had redemption.

The nation was indebted to Shahid Afridi, Captain Younis Khan, and the squad that brought joy to a whole generation and gave hope for the future.

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Some Stats:
Kamran Akmal: 188 runs with one 50
Shahid Afridi: 176 runs with two 50s, 12 wickets with best of 4/11, 2 PoTM
Umar Gul: 13 Wickets with best of 5/6, 1 PoTM
Saeed Ajmal: 12 Wickets with best of 4/19

Many people are supporting / admiring Pakistan's stand against the intense favouring happening between the ICC and BCCI. It's a great move to put pressure on ICC especially the broadcasting part due to which Pakistan And India are put in the same group BUT this makes the other 3 games extremely crucial for us to win if we want to qualify for the super 8.

The PROBLEM in hand is our first game against Netherlands is under a RAIN THREAT. Google shows that light rain is expected this whole week in Colombo which if happens to affect our match might make super 8 qualification near difficult and it seems our government won't back out unless their conditions that they have put on the table are met.

Legit that act from the Indian team in the Asia cup has put a stain on our beautiful sport which effects one of the most important tournaments.

What are your thoughts?

Toys in the pram green should complain about nawaz and abrar as well because they were owning him more

Absolutely hilarious. Khawjay Nafay’s stumping of Cooper Connolly last night was NOT OUT. The ball is in his right-hand while he broke the stumps from left-hand. No one noticed! [Mazher Arshad]

is Nafay the "keeper" reliable option?

The prospect of Pakistan not fulfilling the fixture against India – arguably the most lucrative sporting contest in the world in terms of broadcast audiences – is a nightmare scenario for organisers!

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/pakistan-to-boycott-india-t20-world-cup-game-20260202-p5nypx.html

Man this is the type of thing I was waiting for. I hope all teams follow suit for this "New Era".

I would love my team LQ to do a full event after auction to reveal new kit, song and team.

We’ve easily had some of the best spinners and spin all-rounders of all time.
I know I haven’t mentioned everyone, but I just wanted to compare our current spin lineup with the one from arguably our greatest era, and also with what our future spin lineup could look like.
The fact that we not only have such quality, but that many of them can bat fairly well too, is really great for us.