LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has unveiled a procedure to give one franchise the prestigious and inaugural HBL PSL Cricket Development Excel­lence Award worth $200,000 for its development work.

“The 2026 award will consider the development work done by franchises since the PSL 3 season till the PSL 11, i.e. from the period during which a minimum of six franchises participated in the league,” the PCB said in a press statement issued on Friday.

“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 PSL in the first phase and submit it to an assessment committee formulated by the PCB,” the statement further said.

“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 franchise’s development performance, and their votes will carry 20 per cent weightage in the final scores.”

According to the scoring model, player pathway and development will have 25 per cent, while player impact and match contribution has 10 per cent. Similarly, 15 per cent is allocated to high-performance infrastructure innovations and 20 per cent for grassroots and domestic engagements. Fans voting via social media and player welfare and education will have 20 and 10 per cent, respectively in the scoring.

Giving details about the key performance indicators, the PCB statement said, “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 PSL.

It added, “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,” said the PCB statement.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2026

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