PSL 2021: Four more players issued UAE visa

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  • Umar Amin, Asif Afridi, Hammad Azam and Khalid Usman have been issued UAE visas.
  • Imran Randhava still waiting for his visa approval.
  • Under the COVID-19 protocols, the players will have to undergo a mandatory seven-day quarantine period after arriving in Abu Dhabi.


LAHORE: Four of the five players waiting for their visas have been green-lighted by the UAE authorities, with preparations underway for their travelling, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) confirmed Monday.

Cricketers Umar Amin, Imran Randhawa, Asif Afridi, Hammad Azam and Khalid Usman were among those waiting for their visas.

According to the PCB, the UAE has not issued visa for Imran Randhawa, who is quarantining in Lahore and will depart for Abu Dhabi as soon as his application is processed.

Sources say Hammad and Khalid had terminated their club contracts in England to play for the sixth edition of the PSL.

It must be noted that a player has to undergo a mandatory seven-day quarantine period after arriving in Abu Dhabi, as per the regulations in place.

After a long wait, the PSL will start from June 9 at Sheikh Zayed International Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has come under severe criticism over the delay in the start of the tournament, which was earlier scheduled to kick off on June 1.

The remaining matches of the postponed tournament briefly faced some obstacles before the final schedule was announced. The hiccups were caused due to logistic issues, mainly because of the Indian and South African production team members.

The sixth edition was suspended in March after a coronavirus outbreak in the bio-secure bubble set up in Karachi.

‘PCB does not deserve bashing over delay’

Meanwhile, in an interview with Geo News, PCB CEO Wasim Khan had said that the obstacles that caused delays in PSL remainders were beyond their control and the board did not deserve any bashing over a late start to the tournament.

"It would’ve been PCB’s mismanagement only if things were in PCB’s control," he had said.

“It was not in our hands. I’ve explained it to people that visas or aviation matters aren’t in our control, we did all what we could. We had prepared five different schedules and once we got everything sorted, we got it signed by franchises and announced the schedule,” the PCB official had told the TV channel.

“If PCB wasn’t doing things right, the PSL wouldn’t have been taking place,” he added.

Wasim emphasised that it was important for the brand to see the tournament completed. He confirmed that all the additional cost of staging matches in Abu Dhabi will be borne by the PCB.

“We will have to see the accounts later. It may not be some big loss but surely the revenue of PCB will be minimised due to additional expenses,” he said.