The Pakistan Cricket Board relocated President’s Trophy Grade 1 fixtures away from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 12, 2026, after the federal government declared a state of emergency and placed the province under governor’s rule. The decision came on the very day the sixth round of the tournament was due to get under way.
Games originally assigned to Imran Khan Stadium in Peshawar and to Abbottabad Cricket Stadium were moved to alternative venues and pushed back to October 14. Ghani will meet Hyderabad Kingsmen Academy at Rana Naveed Academy in Sheikhupura, while Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited will face Oil and Gas Development Company Limited at the LCCA Ground, which sits alongside Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
As reported by Cricinfo, fixtures in Islamabad and Rawalpindi remain on their original dates, with the sixth round continuing as planned from October 12 at those centres.
Which other matches have been assigned to new venues?
Two further fixtures have been redirected as part of the same reshuffle. The LCCA Ground in Lahore will stage the final-round contest between Markhor IT Solutions and Pakistan TV, while the National Cricket Ground in Islamabad will host the meeting of Hyderabad Kingsmen Academy and State Bank of Pakistan.
The last round of league-stage matches, previously set to begin on October 18, has been delayed by a day and will now open on October 19. The PCB is yet to confirm where the President’s Trophy final will be held. The sixth round is the penultimate stage of the league phase, which follows a round-robin format in which all eight sides meet each other once, with the top two progressing to the final.
How does the standings picture look heading into the final rounds?
State Bank of Pakistan sit at the top of the President’s Trophy table with 84 points, giving them a commanding lead with two rounds remaining. Ghani occupy second place on 70 points and are the only realistic challengers for the other final berth on current standings.
Hyderabad Kingsmen Academy, Pakistan TV, Markhor IT Solutions and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited have each secured a single victory so far. Both Khan Research Laboratories and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited are still searching for their first win of the competition.
The enforced departure from Peshawar represents a blow to a venue that has been steadily rebuilding its domestic profile. Senior men’s first-class cricket had only recently returned to Imran Khan Stadium, which hosted nine Quaid-e-Azam Trophy matches last season following an absence of nearly seven years. Peshawar was also handed its first-ever Pakistan Super League fixture in 2026, a milestone that followed a successful trial run at the National T20 Cup.
Abbottabad Cricket Stadium has been a consistent host of first-class cricket across multiple seasons. Notably, the PCB had already restricted PSL 2026 to Lahore and Karachi in response to fuel-conservation measures linked to the West Asia crisis, meaning KP venues had faced scheduling constraints even before the current emergency.
