The PCB has received all pending approvals and exemptions from the emirate to host the tournament there
The remainder of PSL 2021 is set to go ahead in Abu Dhabi in June, with the PCB receiving pending approvals and exemptions from the emirate to host the tournament there. The PSL management will now talk to the six franchises to rework logistics and firm up departure plans.
The exemptions include provisions for players, officials and production staff coming from India and South Africa, who will have to quarantine for 10 days in a different hotel to where the rest of the teams are staying. Everyone from India and South Africa will arrive by chartered flight.
The others will have to undergo seven days of the quarantine, with teams put up in three different hotels – two teams in each hotel – and the broadcast crew put up separately.
Players from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will go to Pakistan, and travel from their to the UAE by chartered flights – one each from Lahore and Karachi. At present, amid the ebb and flow of the pandemic, there are restrictions travellers from several countries – including India, South Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – to the UAE.
“We are delighted with this development as the remaining hurdles in the staging of the remaining HBL PSL 6 matches in Abu Dhabi have been overcome and all systems are now good to go,” Wasim Khan, the PCB chief executive, said in a statement. “We are grateful to the UAE government, National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority, Emirates Cricket Board and Abu Dhabi Sports Council for their support and patronage in ensuring all final obstacles were removed, which has firmly put us in a position to complete our marquee event.
“The PCB, in consultation with the team owners, will now work at pace to finalise all event-related arrangements, details of which will be shared in due course.”
The PCB has agreed to bear the incremental costs of the league being shifted to Abu Dhabi. Generally, the entire operational costs, including broadcasting, production and logistics, are broadly shouldered by the franchises, with the PCB solely responsible for stadium rents and match officials’ fees.
A final decision on whether the tournament would go ahead was deferred on Wednesday following two days of growing speculation; if the PCB did not get the required approvals from Abu Dhabi by Thursday, the league – already postponed from March, after a virus outbreak in the bio-bubble – was set to be postponed further.
Fourteen PSL games were played out of a scheduled 34 in Pakistan in February and March, before a spate of Covid-19 cases among players and officials forced the postponement.
Umar Farooq is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent