Last year Pakistan had to suspend its Pakistan Super League because of Covid-19 cases. It has failed to do so this year too because o rising count. The matches were being held in Lahore and Karachi.
One feels sorry for cricket fans in Pakistan who only recently, after benign shunned for years by touring teams, had begun hosting cricket teams. First it was due to fear of terrorist attacks after a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers was attacked by machine-gun wielding terrorists, Now it is the pandemic.
The remainder of the 2021 Pakistan Super League has been postponed, following news on Thursday morning that three more players had tested positive for Covid-19. The decision was taken after an emergency meeting between the PCB and the franchises. The three new cases on Thursday brought the tally of total positives in the tournament bubble to seven, of which six were players.
The PCB said that the decision to postpone was taken “following a meeting with the team owners and considering the health and well-being of all participants”. The board’s immediate next step is to focus on the “safe and secure passage of all participants, and arrange repeat PCR tests, vaccines and isolation facilities to the six participating sides”. Fourteen out of the scheduled 34 matches in the tournament have been completed.
The PCB had said the three most-recent cases are from two different teams. They were tested on Wednesday afternoon after reporting symptoms. The board said the new cases were not from any of the teams who played in Wednesday’s double-header matches, which rules out players from Karachi Kings, Peshawar Zalmi, Multan Sultans or Quetta Gladiators
Before the postponement was announced, the PCB was considering cancelling all matches of Lahore leg of the season and playing all the matches in Karachi.
Last year, three play-offs and the final were cancelled after England’s Alex Hales showed symptoms of Covid-19.
The games were rescheduled to November and held behind closed doors, when Karachi Kings won the title.
