KARACHI: Pakistani squad including cricketers, support staff and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials will depart from Karachi and Lahore on Thursday afternoon for the remaining matches of the sixth edition of the Pakistan Super League.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed that both the flights are scheduled to take off simultaneously at 1 pm on Thursday.
The flights were earlier scheduled to leave on Wednesday morning but PCB was forced to change the schedule at the 11th hour due to a delay in the issuance of some visas.
The PCB also confirmed that after the issuance of visas, flights from South Africa and India are also likely to land in Abu Dhabi on Thursday afternoon.
As many as 27 passengers will travel from South Africa and 25 will travel from India. They will have to arrive in Abu Dhabi before 2pm if they want to count Thursday as the first day of quarantine.
The PCB has sought a relaxation for the bubble-to-bubble transfer of the production crew on the 8th day of their quarantine to ensure timely pre-production work. The board is planning to start the PSL remainders from 5th June but a final schedule will be announced on Thursday.
Earlier, Pakistan Cricket Board hadconfirmed it has received approvals and exemptions from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government for the staging of the remaining 20 matches of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in Abu Dhabi.
The PCB will now hold an online meeting with the six franchise owners to update them about the progress made as well as to finalise all details.
PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan: “We are delighted with this development as the remaining hurdles in the staging of the remaining HBL PSL 6 matches in Abu Dhabi have been overcome and all systems are now good to go.”
“We are grateful to the UAE government, National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority, Emirates Cricket Board and Abu Dhabi Sports Council for their support and patronage in ensuring all final obstacles were removed, which has firmly put us in a position to complete our marquee event.
He said the PCB, in consultation with the team owners, will work to finalise all event-related arrangements. He said the holding of the remaining matches in Abu Dhabi will allow fans to once again follow and support their favourite players and teams.
“The holding of the remaining matches in Abu Dhabi will allow our fans to once again follow and support their favourite players and teams through our high-quality broadcast coverage of one of the most competitive cricket leagues in the world.”
