MI Emirates and Dubai Capitals will kick off the third season of ILT20 on January 11 in Dubai, which will also host the final on February 9. The last league match of the six-team tournament in the UAE will be played on February 3 and the playoffs will start on February 5. Dubai will also host the first qualifier; the eliminator will be played in Abu Dhabi and the second qualifier in Sharjah.
As reported by ESPNcricinfo earlier, the tournament will clash with the SA20, the Big Bash League (BBL), the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and the Super Smash in New Zealand, and the players who have signed up for more than one league will have to make a call.
The ILT20's biggest clash will be with the SA20, which is scheduled from January 9 to February 8. The BBL will run from December 15 to January 27, the BPL from December 30 to February 7, and the Super Smash from December 26 to February 2.
The BBL had suffered a mass exodus of overseas players for the finals last season when the ILT20 started on January 19 but a few foreign players were at least able to play most of the regular season before leaving for the UAE.
A number of players will face a clash conundrum this time too. David Warner has decided to play the entire season for Sydney Thunder, as captain, in the BBL which means he won't be available for Dubai Capitals in the ILT20 until January 17, or for another ten days if Thunder make the finals.
New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson has decided to go the other way. He will start playing for Thunder in the BBL under Warner but will then leave for the ILT20 to be available for Desert Vipers, who had retained him. A similar clash will be on the cards for Jake Fraser-McGurk (Melbourne Renegades/Dubai Capitals), Matthew Wade (Hobart Hurricanes/Sharjah Warriorz), Chris Jordan (Hurricanes/Gulf Giants), Shai Hope (Hurricanes/Dubai Capitals) and others.
A number of other stars have been retained in the ILT20, such as Andre Russell (Abu Dhabi Knight Riders), Sunil Narine (Abu Dhabi Knight Riders), Warner (Dubai Capitals), Rovman Powell (Dubai Capitals), Shimron Hetmyer (Gulf Giants), Nicholas Pooran (MI Emirates). Additionally, Jason Roy (Sharjah Warriorz), Fakhar Zaman (Desert Vipers) and Wade are set to make their debuts in the competition next year.
A total of 34 matches will be staged in the tournament with the final at the Dubai International Stadium. Fifteen matches will be played at the Dubai International Stadium, 11 at Abu Dhabi's Zayed Cricket Stadium and eight in Sharjah. The evening games will begin at 6.30pm on weekdays and at 6pm on the weekends. On the double-header weekends, the afternoon games will be played from 2pm.
David White, the CEO of ILT20, had admitted the January-February 2025 was a crowded window with the "added complications" of the Champions Trophy. He had said the ILT20 would look at all options that would include moving the window to the October-November period. However, eventually the ILT20, which received List A status from ICC prior to the 2024 season, had decided to stick to the same window the tournament had been played over in the last two years.
Earlier this year, the PCB had announced a move to push PSL to an April-May window, in an effort to avoid an increasingly crowded December-February window, although that will result in a clash with the IPL.