Nine foreign players, including the English trio of Jason Roy, Alex Hales and James Vince, have left the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) and returned home owing to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), however, said the PSL will continue as per the schedule.
“What is paramount is we are giving options to all the players and support personnel to withdraw from the league if they want too as ensuring they feel comfortable remains top priority of the PCB,” PCB CEO Wasim Khan was quoted as saying PTI.
England players Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Tymal Mills, Liam Dawson, Liam Livingstone, Lewis Gregory, James Vince, West Indies’ Carlos Brathwaite, South Africa’s Rilee Roussouw and James Foster (Coach) will be returning home from Pakistan, PCB confirmed.
Roy, Mills both represented the Quetta Gladiator franchise in the PSL while Dawson and Brathwaite were playing for Peshawar Zalmi. Roussouw, Vince and Gregory were part of the Multan Sultan side.
The PCB on Thursday took the decision to bar spectators from the remaining PSL matches that are scheduled to be played at the National Stadium in Karachi.
At least 20 positive cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported so far in Pakistan.