Pakistan to Wear Pink Kits vs England in ODI for Breast Cancer Awareness

By Imran Javed | October 19, 2026 | Sports

Pakistan’s cricketers will wear specially designed pink kits when they face England in the fourth ODI of the tri-series on Sunday, October 25, at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. The Pakistan Cricket Board has dedicated the match to breast cancer awareness as part of Pinktober — the global Breast Cancer Awareness Month — with pink ribbons for the England players, match officials and commentators, pink stumps, awareness messages flashing on the big screens and LED boards, and free breast cancer screening for fans at the Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Trust Hospital in Lahore from October 24 to 26.

Cricket and charity cross paths every season, but this one is different in scale. The PCB is not just changing a shirt colour for a day — it has built an entire match-day programme around early detection, roped in the opposition, the broadcasters and the officials, and put free screening within walking distance of the stadium. For the thousands of families who will be at Gaddafi Stadium on October 25, the message will be impossible to miss.

The Announcement: An ODI Turned Pink

The October 25 fixture is the fourth ODI of a tri-series that also features Sri Lanka, with the final scheduled for October 31 in Lahore. Of all the matches on the calendar, the PCB chose the Pakistan-England clash for its Pink Day — the biggest stage available, with the biggest audience.

PCB Chief Operating Officer Sumair Ahmad Syed said the board wants to “use the platform of international cricket to raise awareness about breast cancer and highlight the importance of early detection and timely medical attention.” It is a deliberate choice of words: not just awareness in the abstract, but early detection — the single factor that most improves survival.

The initiative has been put together with Pink Ribbon Pakistan, the organisation that has run the country’s breast cancer awareness movement for years. Its CEO, Umar Aftab, is partnering with the PCB on the match-day programme, and PCB Director Commercial Ali Adnan Zaidi has been involved in shaping the commercial and fan-facing side of the campaign — including the pink shirts going on sale for supporters.

What Pink Day Will Look Like at Gaddafi Stadium

If you are in the stands on October 25, here is what you will see:

• Pink kits: the Pakistan team will play in specially designed pink jerseys instead of the usual green.
• Pink ribbons: England’s players, the match officials and the commentary team have all been invited to wear pink ribbons — so the cause is visible on both sides of the contest.
• Pink stumps: even the stumps get the treatment.
• Screens and boards: breast cancer awareness messages will run on the stadium’s big screens and the LED boundary boards throughout the match.
• Commentary: the commentators will highlight the awareness messages during the broadcast, carrying the campaign to the millions watching at home.
• Player video messages: Pakistan’s players will record video messages for the cause, to be shared around the match.

Pink Ribbon’s on-ground activities begin two hours before the first ball, so fans arriving early — and in Lahore, for a Pakistan-England game, that means most of the crowd — will walk straight into the awareness programme before the cricket even starts.

Free Screening for Fans: October 24–26

The most practical part of the whole initiative has nothing to do with cricket. The Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Trust Hospital in Lahore will offer free breast cancer screening for fans from October 24 to 26 — the day before, the day of, and the day after the match.

This is the detail that elevates the campaign from symbolism to service. Awareness messages are valuable, but a free screening slot is a concrete next step: a woman who sees the pink stumps on Sunday can walk into a screening on Monday. The PCB and Pink Ribbon have effectively built a funnel — stadium spectacle on one end, medical facility on the other — and the free screening is the part that could actually save lives.

If you are reading this in Lahore, or know someone who should go: the window is October 24 to 26, at the Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Trust Hospital. Tell the women in your family. That is the entire point of the exercise.

Fans Can Wear It Too: Pink Shirts on Sale From Today

You do not have to be in the playing XI to wear pink on October 25. Special pink shirts go on sale from October 19 — today — at the PCB’s official merchandise shop at Gaddafi Stadium and through the board’s online store.

It is a smart move. Stadiums look their best when the crowd dresses for the occasion, and a sea of pink in the stands will photograph and broadcast far better than a few ribbons in the dugout. If the shirts sell well, expect Gaddafi Stadium to look very different from its usual green on Sunday.

The Series Around It

The pink ODI sits inside a tri-series featuring Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka, with the final set for October 31 in Lahore. The October 25 match is the fourth ODI of the series — late enough in the tournament that the context (who needs the win, who is already through) will add its own drama to the occasion.

Pakistan-England at Gaddafi Stadium needs no extra selling. It is one of the great modern rivalries, the stadium will be full, and the television audience will be enormous. Choosing this fixture for the awareness campaign guarantees the message the largest possible stage — which is precisely the point.

Not the First Time — and a Presidential Nudge

The PCB has done this before. The board previously staged a Pink Day during a home T20I against South Africa, so the October 25 ODI is a continuation of an existing commitment rather than a one-off gesture. The machinery — the partner, the messaging, the merchandise — has been built before, and it is being scaled up for a bigger occasion.

The cause also got a push from the very top: President Asif Ali Zardari issued a breast cancer awareness message for October 19, framing early detection as a national priority. When the presidency, the cricket board and the country’s leading awareness organisation are all pulling in the same direction in the same week, the campaign stops being a cricket story and becomes a public health moment.

Why Cricket Works for This Cause

It is worth asking why a cricket match is such a good vehicle for a health message — and the answer is reach plus trust.

Cricket reaches households that health campaigns often do not. A televised Pakistan-England ODI pulls in tens of millions of viewers across every province, every income bracket, every age group — including the men whose encouragement often determines whether the women in their families seek screening. And cricketers carry a kind of credibility that billboards cannot buy: when a fast bowler records a video message about early detection, people listen in a way they do not listen to pamphlets.

The PCB seems to understand this. The pink kits get the photographs, but the free screening, the ribbons on the opposition, the commentary mentions and the LED boards are what turn a photo opportunity into a campaign. October 25 will be judged not by how pink the stadium looked, but by how many women walked into a screening in the days after.

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