BANGKOK: The aftermath of political tensions between India and Pakistan have affected the Pakistan Super League (PSL) adversely once again as the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced Sunday that it will be shifting the Lahore leg of the tournament to the port city of Karachi. Earlier, Indian companies such as DSport, Dream11 and IMG-Reliance had snapped their association with the league.
Eight matches were expected to be played in Lahore on 9,11 and 12 March respectively. However, the city’s Allama Iqbal International Airport had stalled its operations for commercial flights on Friday over the weekend following air strikes between India and Pakistan’s military.
As a result, Lahore posed commercial, operational and logistical challenges for PCB and other PSL stakeholders in terms of production equipment and broadcast crew. The board has already declared a refund for all ticket holders and a change in match schedule as well.
PCB chairman Ehsan Mani stated: “This has been a difficult and tough decision, which has been taken following discussion and consultation with all the franchisees and service providers to ensure certainty and clarity on the event as well as delivery of the remaining matches as per the PCB’s own very high standards.
“Due to the recent and prevailing uncertainty, we felt it critical to make a decisive decision at this juncture. Ensuring all matches are played in Pakistan falls in line with our vision to take all eight matches of the HBL PSL 2019 matches to the people of Pakistan.
“It is unfortunate that the headquarters of Pakistan cricket will be unable to host the PSL matches in 2019 due to no fault of the PCB, but this is a small sacrifice for a bigger and larger national cause.
“We have spoken with the franchisees, who have backed this decision and have reinforced that all their foreign players will feature in the last eight matches of what has been an outstanding and highly competitive tournament that has been thoroughly enjoyed by the fans and the players.
“The PCB appreciates and applauds the support of the franchisees as well as the players, who understand that the evolving situation has forced us to make these amendments to the event schedule.”
