Lahore: In a chilling warning to foreign cricketers scheduled to take part in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), an armed opposition group has advised them to withdraw from the T20 league.
A day after Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi announced that the 11th edition of PSL will be held in two cities only, and in front of empty stadiums, the tournament was hit by a state of high-level emergency.
This season’s PSL features several high-profile international cricketers, including Australia’s David Warner, Steve Smith and Adam Zampa, New Zealand’s Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell, and England’s Moeen Ali.
Former Australian captain Smith, who arrived in Lahore on Monday, said he was looking forward to an exciting season with his franchise Multan Sultan.
Little did he know that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction had issued a statement calling the PSL a “cruel mockery” of the suffering in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, reported India Today.
“We wish to convey a clear and urgent message to all participants of the PSL, especially the foreign players: The current internal security and political landscape of the country is volatile and precarious. In a climate where military operations and civil unrest dominate significant portions of the territory, the safety of international athletes cannot be guaranteed. Given these dire circumstances, we strongly advise you to prioritise your personal security and withdraw from the tournament immediately,” said the statement issued by the group’s spokesperson Asad Mansoor.
“We want to advise the relevant cricket boards not to send their players to Pakistan. If something happens to them, it will not be our responsibility. We have already issued our warning,” a commander of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar told The Sunday Guardian.
Asked how the group will respond if the players ignored the warning, the commander said, “We will do whatever is in our capacity, but we will not let the matches happen. We will do our best to ensure that the tournament is disrupted and the players do not take to the field.”
With just three days left for the tournament to kick off, all eyes are on the PCB and the international cricketers in view of the grim warning.
