The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced match officials and commentators for the Pakistan Super League (PSL8) season eight, which will be played across four venues from 13 February to 19 March.

The first leg of the tournament will be played in Karachi and Multan from 13 to 26 of February, while the action will then move to Lahore and Rawalpindi. The tournament will conclude on March 19 at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Three ICC’s elite panel umpires – Aleem Dar, Richard Illingworth, and Michael Gough – will join Ahsan Raza, Asif Yaqoob, Rashid Riaz, Faisal Khan Afridi, Martin Saggers, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Alex Wharf, and Shozab Raza to officiate the tournament.

Muhammad Asif, Nasir Hussain, and Tariq Rasheed will be involved in the fourth umpire’s role.

Roshan Mahanama will return for the eighth successive year and will lead a team of five match referees with other members being Ali Naqvi, Iftikhar Ahmed, Javed Malik and Muhammad Anees.

The opening match between defending champions Lahore Qalandars and Multan Sultans in Multan will be umpired by Asif Yaqoob and Martin Saggers, while Faisal Afridi will be the third umpire and Shozab Raza as fourth umpire. Mohammad Anees will be the match referee.

Ali Naqvi will lead the Playing Control Team for the Karachi Kings versus Peshawar Zalmi match in Karachi on 14 February. Ahsan Raza and England’s Alex Wharf will be the on-field umpires, Ruchira Palliyaguruge third umpire, and Tariq Rasheed fourth umpire.

Star-studded commentary panel

The PCB has also confirmed a panel of 15 commentators and two presenters for the 34-match tournament.

Alan Wilkins, Bazid Khan, Danny Morrison, Daren Ganga, Dominic Cork, Mark Butcher, Nick Knight, Sana Mir, Sikandar Bakht, Simon Doull, Urooj Mumtaz, Vernon Philander, and Waqar Younis will commentate in English, while Marina Iqbal and Tariq Saeed will be Urdu commentators. Erin Holland and Zainab Abbas will be the presenters.

For the HBL PSL 8, two full production kits and crews will be operational simultaneously. This will only be the second time since HBL PSL 5 and the first time in the post-Covid era.