PCB launches $200,000 award to reward PSL franchises for cricket development

The inaugural award will assess franchises on player pathways, grassroots investment, infrastructure and welfare, with fan voting accounting for 20% of the final score.

Official logo of HBL Pakistan Super League featuring stylized cricketer and green-yellow arc.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has today unveiled the procedure to award one franchise the prestigious and inaugural HBL PSL Cricket Development Excellence Award worth USD 200,000. The 2026 award will consider the development work done by franchises since the HBL PSL 3 season till the HBL PSL 11, i.e. from the period during which a minimum of six franchises participated in the league.

After the 11th edition of the tournament, only the development work done between two latest editions will be considered and evaluated for this award.

The franchises will self-assess and mark themselves using a scoring model devised by the HBL PSL in the first phase and submit it to an assessment committee formulated by the PCB.

The five-member committee includes independent experts as well as internal stakeholders, who will be tasked with the responsibility to verify and confirm each score against the evidence supplied, using verifiable data points. 80% of the final score will be assessed through this mechanism. Thereafter, competing franchises will be asked to publish a presentation depicting cricket development work carried by them on official PSL social media handles.

Fans will be entitled to vote and rank the franchises development performance, and their votes will carry 20 per cent weightage in the final scores.

The scoring model and the weightage of the scores is given below:

  1. Player Pathway and Development – 25 per cent
  2. Player Impact and Match contribution – 10 per cent
  3. High-Performance Infrastructure and Innovations – 15 per cent
  4. Grassroots and Domestic Engagement – 20 per cent
  5. Player Welfare and Education – 10 per cent
  6. Fan voting via Social Media – 20 per cent

Scoring guidelines will be provided to fans at the time of voting.

About the Key Performance Indicators:

The Player Pathway and Development Key Performance Indicator (KPI) will deal with new or uncapped talent identified by franchises, their development, their progression and cricket exposure provided to them beyond HBL PSL.

Player Impact and Match contribution KPI will evaluate a scouted/new found player’s impact trajectory, match deciding impact and role expansion with a respective franchise.

The High-Performance Infrastructure and Innovations KPI combines institutional capacity – facilities, staffing and systems – with technology-led innovation.

The Player Welfare and Education KPI deals with the financial literacy and education support provided by franchises to players along with things like mental health support systems, media training, anti-doping and anti-corruption education and career transition plans.

Grassroots and Domestic Engagement KPI will evaluate the work done by franchises in men’s and women’s cricket development, arrangement of coaching clinics for kids, School and club cricket initiatives and participation in PCB-organized cricket.

Further details about the committee and voting schedule will be announced in due course.

KPI document is attached here.