Pakistan Super League will be held on schedule from March 26, but without the crowds and only at two venues.

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Pakistan’s premier domestic T20 league will take place in empty stadiums due to the recent spike in oil prices, says a top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The franchise-based Pakistan Super League, set to kick off on Thursday, also ⁠cancelled its opening ceremony in Lahore, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi said on Sunday, citing a fuel ⁠shortage caused by the conflict in the Middle East.

The league was set to be played in six cities, but now only Lahore and Karachi will be hosting the games, with the opening encounter set to be played at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Pakistan has faced soaring oil prices prompted by the United States-Israel war on Iran and the subsequent spread of the conflict across the region. Pakistan’s government has asked its citizens to restrict their movements due to rising fuel prices.

“We don’t know how long this war will continue,” Naqvi said.

“We can’t ask people to restrict their movements and then have 30,000 people in stadiums every day. We decided that as long as this [oil] crisis is ongoing, we will not have crowds at matches. This was a difficult decision, but it needed to be made. The opening ceremony will also be cancelled.”

Naqvi said the PCB will issue refunds for all sold tickets within 72 hours and will also compensate franchise owners for the loss of revenue from gate receipts.

Naqvi apologised to the four cities – Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Peshawar – that will no longer host PSL games this season. “We have to restrict our movements, and we do not want to waste our resources,” he said. “I especially apologise to Peshawar, which was due to host PSL games for the first time, [but] there will be no crowds anyway, so there was no reason to go to those cities.”

Naqvi said he consulted Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is also the PCB patron, and the eight franchises before finalising the decision to stage the games in empty stadiums.

Several foreign players have pulled out of PSL due to personal reasons, including Australians Jake Fraser-McGurk and Spencer Johnson, South African Ottneil Baartman and Gudakesh Motie of the West Indies.