Postponement looms large on PSL 2021 as PCB awaits final response from Emirates board

The 6th edition of the Pakistan Super League has been postponed due to operational issues faced by Pakistan Cricket Board. The current edition had come to an abrupt halt after Covid-19 cases emerged inside the bio-bubble. Paused at game number 14, the remainder of the tournament was set to take place in June this year.

Notably, the PCB had called a meeting today with all the franchise to take all the decision regarding the remaining 20 games, which were scheduled to be played in the United Arab Emirates owing to the concerns of all franchises regarding the pandemic situation in Pakistan.

In a collective letter to the PCB on May 4th, all six franchises had requested for the shifting of the tournament to UAE keeping in mind the security of all the stakeholders. Even as multiple logistical challenges arose for the board, it ensured to address the concerns and secure a government nod from the government of the emirate.

Operational challenges may lead to PSL postponement

However, the pre-condition for the same as decided by the UAE government was to ensure that every stakeholder involved in the league from players to officials to broadcast and production staff should have been vaccinated against Covid-19. That was always a challenge as the teams and broadcast member are people from around the world, and the vaccination campaigns are at a different stage of roll-out.

One of the other challenges for the management was to tackle the travel complications with various incoming travel restrictions in place in the UAE for flights from several countries.

“We had an interactive and productive meeting in which we considered a number of factors. While the UAE has emerged as a preferred venue, a number of challenges remain, which will be worked through over the coming days. We remain committed to doing everything possible to complete the HBL PSL 6,” Wasim Khan, the PCB chief executive, had said earlier this month.

“We updated the team owners that PCB had been advised that the PSL had received approvals from the relevant authorities in the UAE. However, some clarifications on certain exemption requests are still awaited, which are expected at some stage on Thursday,” stated Wasim Khan.