PSL 2021: Cricketers travelling from India issued visas for Abu Dhabi
All 25 players arriving from India issued visas for Abu Dhabi, says PCB
May 26, 2021
- All the 25 officials travelling from India to Abu Dhabi have been issued visas, says PCB.
- David Miller, Faf du Plessis, Herschelle Gibbs and Rilee Rossouw issued visas to travel to Abu Dhabi.
- Next PSL to take place in Pakistan, says PCB.
The UAE has issued visas to all players and support staff travelling from India and South Africa for the Pakistan Super League's sixth edition being played in Abu Dhabi.
This was revealed by the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) Director Communications Sami Burni on Wednesday.
David Miller, Faf du Plessis, Herschelle Gibbs, Rilee Rossouw, Cameron Delport and Michael Smith have all received their travel documents.
He said all members of the support staff from South Africa were also issued travel visas by the UAE authorities.
Burni said the main reason why the PCB had to hold remaining matches of the highly-anticipated league as it didn't have any other time window available.
Rejecting speculation that the next edition of the league will not be held in Pakistan, Burni said, "The next PSL will also take place in Pakistan."
On Tuesday, the PCB had to postpone its scheduled chartered flights to UAE to transfer players, officials and support staff for the remaining matches of the PSL.
This was done due to a delay in issuance of visas.
Two aircraft were earlier scheduled to leave from Lahore and Karachi on Wednesday to take 233 passengers to Abu Dhabi for the PSL. However, a late-night message by the board on Tuesday stated that the flight has now been delayed by 24 hours.
“Departure to UAE from Pakistan delayed by a day due to non-issuance of visas of all passengers,” a PCB official had said.
A source from the hotel had said everyone had packed their bags and all seemed on track till they got a late-night message about the delay in flights to the UAE.
“We can’t do much, it is what it is,” the source had told Geo News.
Another source had said that PCB was banking on assurance of Emirates Cricket Board. The UAE board had informed PCB after 10pm about the delay in issuance of visas.
