Pakistan’s T20 cricket league will be relocated to the United Arab Emirates, officials said Friday, after Indian attacks on the country including a drone that reached Rawalpindi stadium.

Pakistan’s army “neutralised” 28 Indian drones, including one near the city’s stadium on Thursday morning, the foreign minister Ishaq Dar said.

He called it “a deliberate attempt to target domestic and foreign cricket players”.

“Pakistan Cricket Board confirms that the remaining matches of the Pakistan Super League has been shifted to the UAE,” read a PCB statement, which added that the schedule would be updated in due course.

The decision was reached after several meetings between the franchise and the PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the country’s interior minister.

Naqvi said the decision was made for the sake of players’ safety.

“The PCB has always stood by the position that politics and sports need to be kept apart. However, in view of the extremely irresponsible and dangerous Indian act of targeting the stadium, the PCB has taken this decision,” Naqvi was quoted as saying in the statement.

“We have shifted the remaining matches to the UAE so that the domestic as well as foreign cricketers, who are our precious guests, can be saved from the possible reckless targeting by India.”

Former champions Karachi Kings and Peshawar Zalmi were due to play at Rawalpindi stadium on Thursday but the match was postponed after a drone fell close to the stadium.

Thirty-seven foreign players including from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are involved in the PSL.

Sources told AFP foreign players did not want stay in Pakistan after deadly confrontations between the nuclear-armed foes drew global calls for calm.

India sent air strikes into Pakistan on Wednesday, two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir, which Pakistan denied.

Pakistan responded with heavy artillery fire and both sides accused each other on Thursday of carrying out waves of drone attacks.

International cricket resumed in Pakistan in 2020 after remaining suspended in the wake of 2009 terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore.

Several Australian and New Zealand players involved in this season’s PSL, including Australia’s David Warner, had travelled to Pakistan with their national teams in the recent past.

Source: AFP
--Agencies