LAHORE: 6 National teams of PSL for the sixth edition of the Pakistan Super League is set to resume from June 9 but five players are still waiting for their UAE visas, learnt TTI News on good authority.
Those players who have yet to get visas are Umar Amin, Imran Randhawa and Asif Afridi, who is in Lahore. The others include Hammad Azam and Khalid Usman, who are in England.
Sources say Hammad and Khalid terminated their club contracts in England to play for the sixth edition of the PSL.
It must be noted that a player has to undergo a mandatory seven-day quarantine period after arriving in Abu Dhabi, as per the regulations in place.
After a long wait, the PSL will start from June 9 at Sheikh Zayed International Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has come under severe criticism over the delay in the start of the tournament, which was earlier scheduled to kick off on June 1.
The remaining matches of the postponed tournament briefly faced some obstacles before the final schedule was announced. The hiccups were caused due to logistic issues, mainly because of the Indian and South African production team members.
The sixth edition was suspended in March after a coronavirus outbreak in the bio-secure bubble set up in Karachi.
‘Bashing PCB Over Delays’
Meanwhile, in an interview with a private TV channel, PCB CEO Wasim Khan had said that the obstacles that caused delays in PSL remainders were beyond their control and the board did not deserve any bashing over a late start to the tournament.
“It would’ve been PCB’s mismanagement only if things were in PCB’s control,” he had said.
“It was not in our hands. I’ve explained it to people that visas or aviation matters aren’t in our control, we did all what we could. We had prepared five different schedules and once we got everything sorted, we got it signed by franchises and announced the schedule,” the PCB official had told the TV channel.
“If PCB wasn’t doing things right, the PSL wouldn’t have been taking place,” he added.
Wasim emphasised that it was important for the brand to see the tournament completed. He confirmed that all the additional cost of staging matches in Abu Dhabi will be borne by the PCB.
“We will have to see the accounts later. It may not be some big loss but surely the revenue of PCB will be minimised due to additional expenses,” he said.
