The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday denied reports that it had already finalised the home cities for two new HBL PSL franchises. In an official statement, the board “refutes news circulating in the media regarding the finalisation of the two city names” for the new PSL teams. The PCB explained that successful bidders will be free to choose a team name and home city from a predefined shortlist of options, as set out in the bid documents. In fact, the list of six candidate cities — Hyderabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit — was compiled only after independent valuation reports for the prospective franchises were received by the PCB. The board welcomed the “growing interest in acquisition of team franchise rights” for two additional teams, and reminded bidders that a formal public tender was issued on 15 November 2025 inviting global investors to participate. (The deadline for submitting technical proposals is 11:00am on 15 December 2025.
To be clear, no city names have been locked in. Instead, the PCB has provided a shortlist of six possible home venues. Any successful bidder for the new franchises may select one team city from this list:
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Faisalabad
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Rawalpindi
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Hyderabad
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Sialkot
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Muzaffarabad
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Gilgit
The PCB’s announcement emphasizes that the auction process is still underway. The public tender for the two new team franchises was advertised on 15 November 2025, seeking expressions of interest from around the world. Bidders have until the technical-proposal deadline to finalize their offers. Key dates (all 2025) are as follows:
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Tender advertised: 15 November 2025. Bids are invited globally for two PSL franchises, with the right to choose their team identity from the approved city list.
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Proposal deadline: 11:00am on 15 December 2025, by which all technical proposals must be submitted to the PCB.
The PCB has cautioned fans and investors to rely only on official communications and not on unofficial rumours.
Earlier statements by PCB officials had foreshadowed this expansion process. PSL Chief Executive Salman Naseer told reporters on 29 October 2025 that two new franchises would be added to the 11th edition of the league, and that bidding parties would be given a pool of city names from which to pick. In fact, the PSL’s six-city shortlist was announced only after the PCB received independent valuation reports for the potential teams. If two new teams are indeed sold by year-end, Pakistan’s top T20 league will grow from six to eight teams. The PSL launched in 2016 with five franchises and expanded to six teams (with Multan Sultans joining in 2018); adding two more clubs will be its first major expansion in seven years.
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