PSL 2021: 250-odd people touch down in Abu Dhabi; landing permission in process for Indian and South African members

After three departure delays in 36 hours, a 250-strong contingent for PSL 2021 took two charter flights from Lahore and Karachi to Abu Dhabi on Thursday (May 27). The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is now awaiting permission for those coming in from India and South Africa.

While it was the rising COVID-19 cases in the bio-bubble in March, failure to get permission from the UAE authorities to land charter flights from the two countries seemed to land PSL in a fix. However, the process has been fast-tracked after the Abu Dhabi sports council took it up with their immigration authority.

“The Abu Dhabi sports council has now written a letter to its immigration authority to allow the landing of the charter flights from Mumbai and Johannesburg,” a PCB official privy to the developments said.

The players, officials, broadcasters and other stakeholders who arrived on Thursday have already begun their mandatory seven-day quarantine.

“The players, officials and other stakeholders have already entered quarantine at their hotels, so now the PCB is in a position to announce the fresh schedule of the remaining 20 matches of the PSL,” the official stated.

It'll be a race against time to resume the league on June 5 and complete the remaining 20 games by June 20. However, around 20 players and officials are still pending visas which, it is learnt, will be issued by tonight. Also in the queue is Quetta Gladiators captain Sarfaraz Ahmed.

“We are still awaiting some 20 visas for some players and officials of some franchises and we will get them tonight and they will also leave by tomorrow on a chartered flight,” he added in this regard.

Notably, there was a long-standing delay in getting visas issued for the Indian and South African broadcasting crew members as well, which finally came through on Thursday.

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Four franchises level on points in top four of PSL 2021

Multan Sultans captain Mohammad Rizwan enjoys a 39-run lead at the top of the batting charts [Credits: Cricket Pakistan]

When PSL 2021 was indefinitely suspended on March 3, Imad Wasim’s Karachi Kings sat pretty atop the points table with six points from five matches played. However, the next three franchises also won three games each in a clustered top four.

Wahab Riaz’s Peshawar Zalmi, the Shadab Khan-led Islamabad United and the Sohail Khan-captained Lahore Qalandars – in that order – are in the four PSL 2021 semi-final spots on the basis of NRR (net run rate).

As for individual performances, Multan Sultans skipper Mohammad Rizwan leads the run-scoring charts with 297 runs at an astounding average of 59.40. Peshawar’s Saqib Mahmood picked up the most wickets, with 12 scalps at an average of 12.08.

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