Former Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed is among the list of 25 players and staff who have been denied visa by the United Arba Emirates where the rest of the 20 games of the Pakistan Super League are going to be hosted.
A report in Geo news claimed that along with Sarfaraz his Quetta gladiators compatriot fast bowler Mohammad Hasnain, Multan Sultans’ Imran Khan, PCB Media Department Officer Emad Hameed are among the 25 members halted after the first batch of players departed Karachi late evening on May 27.
Other players in the list include the newly signed Multan Sultan’s player and Shahid Afridi’s replacement in the side Asif Afridi, Umar Amin, Muhammad Musa, Zaid Alam, Zeeshan Ashraf, Abrar Ahmed, Imran Randhawa, Mohammad Haris, and Aamir Khan.
The league is already under a lot of threat with the scheduled departure on May 26 being delayed twice and the media and broadcast crew from India and South Africa facing a lot of travel-related hurdles for the tournament.
Originally scheduled to be played in February-March this year, the tournament was postponed on March 4 after several players were infected with Covid-19 in the bio-bubble. The rescheduled tournament was to take place from June 1 in Karachi, but it was again postponed and would now be held in UAE’s Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi from June 5, although the fixtures haven’t been drawn up yet.