Players from both leagues started making arrangements to return home.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, some international cricketers playing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) managed to leave Pakistan just hours before a reported missile strike hit a nearby military base. Most of them, including several Australian players, flew to Dubai on a special flight arranged for their safety.
The PSL and IPL were both postponed due to rising tensions between India and Pakistan. Players from both leagues started making arrangements to return home. Australian stars like Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Travis Head have organised flights back to Australia after air-raid alerts were issued in northern parts of India, including Dharamshala.
Australian players involved in the PSL, such as Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshuis, Ashton Turner, and Mitch Owen, left Islamabad on Friday night on a charter flight organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board. From Dubai, connecting flights were being arranged to help players reach their home countries.
The serious part of the situation was that just a few hours after the players left, the Nur Khan airbase, from where they had flown out, was reportedly one of the sites targeted in missile strikes by Indian forces. The base is located close to Pakistan’s military headquarters, around ten kilometres from Islamabad. Local reports mentioned multiple blasts and fires, with smoke and panic spreading through nearby areas.
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Though David Warner had already returned to Australia earlier, the rest of the players were left shaken. Peter Lovitt, the manager of Abbott and Dwarshuis, said both players were safe in Dubai and resting before flying back to Sydney.
“Sean and Ben are relieved to be in Dubai now,” Peter Lovitt, who manages Abbott and Dwarshuis, told this masthead. “They are resting at a hotel as they prepare to fly back to Sydney.
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