Following a meeting with the team owners and considering that the health and wellbeing of all participants was paramount, the Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to postpone the HBL Pakistan Super League 2021 with immediate effect. The decision was made after seven cases were reported in the competition, which had started on 20 February, which had resulted in situation which had become beyond the reasonable control of all stakeholders.
The PCB, as an immediate step, will focus on the safe and secure passage of all participants, and arrange repeat PCR tests, vaccines and isolation facilities to the six participating sides.
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Tournament postponed indefinitely
PCB CEO Wasim Khan said, in a press conference at the National Stadium, that they will be looking at windows to complete the tournament before the end of the year.
Right now the board is focusing on “carefully and slowly exiting players from our environment to safely get them out so they can travel wherever they need to,” he remarked.
The SOPs for bio-secure bubbles require partnerships, discipline, and self-policing, Khan said. “We had a minor breach in the beginning and we all had a responsibility to actually police and self-police but we weren’t able to do it effectively enough.”
Big blow for Pakistan: Shahid Afridi
Former captain and star all-rounder Shahid Khan Afridi believes that the postponement of the event will prove to be a big blow for Pakistan cricket.
“PSL is now an international brand,” he said while speaking to the media on Thursday. “Postponement of such an event will be a big blow for Pakistan cricket. It will not be easy to organize these matches at a later date since there will be other big events taking place later this year as well.”