Amid the Covid-19 outbreak, a number of cricket leagues are being cancelled daily. The Pakistan Super League organizers somehow managed to continue the league for last few days in the empty stadium. But now even they decided to postpone the final leg of the league with immediate effect.
PSL last leg cancelled
The semi-finals of Pakistan Super League and the final match were scheduled for March 17 and 18 respectively. On the day of knockouts, the organizers took a last-minute call to cancel the league for the time being and postpone the knockout stage. The last few matches of the leagues were held at the National Stadium in Karachi without the crowd. Even the league was shortened by four days as well for the outbreak.
Multan Sultans were supposed to play Peshawar Zalmi in the first semi-final and Karachi Kings had a face-off with Lahore Qalanders in the second one. Lahore had the responsibility of hosting these all-important matches. But with the current number of Covid-19 cases risen to 184 in Pakistan, the PCB had to take the decision. A tweet from the official handle of the PSL read, “IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT #HBLPSLV postponed, to be rescheduled. More details to follow in due course.”
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT#HBLPSLV postponed, to be rescheduled. More details to follow in due course.
— PakistanSuperLeague (@thePSLt20) March 17, 2020
Wasim Khan explains
Wasim Khan, the PCB chief executive told reporters, “One overseas player has been potentially suspected (of having contracted COVID-19). However, we cannot reveal the identity of that player. But it’s true that there is one suspected case and the player has left Pakistan already.”
Khan further explained how the PSL committee was in touch with the Government throughout and continued the league with their consent. “We first made our decision to play in empty stadiums, gave players option to leave, reduced the number of days as well and all decisions we had taken were for the greater good.”
According to Khan after the recent developments, this was a deliberate decision.”But this new development came after a player who left Pakistan told us that (he has) symptoms and this (decision to suspend PSL) isn’t in light of being panicked, but it’s a sensible response and we made our decision after thorough deliberation. But before this there was no suspected case at all, which is why the decision wasn’t made before.”
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