The next edition of the International League T20 will not be played in its usual January-February window. Instead, the organisers have decided to bring it forward to the December-January window in order to finish the tournament well before the T20 World Cup, scheduled to take place in February-March next year in India and Sri Lanka.
Another intention to move the league forward is to avoid the cluttering of so many T20 leagues in the January-February window. Apart from ILT20, SA20, Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and Big Bash League (BBL) is also played in a similar window. BBL runs from December and goes on till February and ILT20 will clash with Australia's domestic league in spite of its latest move.
Interestingly, even the Pakistan Super League (PSL) was played in the same window until last year, but PCB decided to move it in the IPL window from this season for more clarity around the availability of the overseas players and of course, to avoid the clash with other leagues.
Coming back to ILT20, the next edition of the tournament is set to take place from December 2, 2025, to January 4, 2026. "Following extensive discussions with all our stakeholders, we believe the 2 December 2025 to 4 January 2026 tournament window is ideal for the DP World International League T20 Season 4. The ICC Men's T20 World Cup begins in early February hence it was important for us to start and finish Season 4 well before the tournament as it will allow the players playing both the DP World ILT20 and the T20 World Cup to prepare for national duty," ILT20 chief executive David White said in a statement.
"In addition, we feel that the December-January window will provide the teams' the best opportunity to access a bigger pool of players," he added. However, it is still not confirmed if the change in window is only for the upcoming edition. For the unversed, ILT20 is three seasons old now with Gulf Giants, MI Emirate,s and Dubai Capitals winning the trophy so far.