Vendors pack their belongings as they leave Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium following the postponement of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) match after the alleged shooting of a drone outside the stadium in Rawalpindi on May 8, 2025. Photo: AFP
The Pakistan Super League is moving the remaining matches of the season to the United Arab Emirates amid the ongoing tensions between Pakistan and India.
All the players, including the nine New Zealanders in the competition - Tim Seifert, Kane Williamson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Finn Allen, Mark Chapman, Kyle Jamieson and Colin Munro - will fly to the UAE on Friday night (NZ time).
A match between Peshawar and Karachi in Rawalpindi was postponed.
Pakistan's military said on Friday it had shot down 25 drones from India overnight.
A Pakistan Cricket Board official told BBC Sport a drone misfired and led to an explosion in the street behind the stadium in Rawalpindi. The BBC said it had been unable to verify the claim.
The Pakistan Super League had been investigating options for the remainder of the season.
Meanwhile, in India, an Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians has been moved from Dharamshala to Ahmedabad amid the ongoing conflict between the two countries, Reuters reported.
India struck multiple locations in Pakistan this week after a deadly 22 April attack targeting Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir that New Delhi blames on its Muslim neighbour.
Pakistan has denied any link to the Kashmir violence.
Spectators leave after the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket match between Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals was abandoned due to the floodlights malfunctioning at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala, 8 May, 2025. Photo: AFP
Flight operations have been suspended in several Indian airports, including Dharamsala.
"With the airport in Dharamsala closed, it would have been a huge logistical challenge for everyone involved," Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia told Reuters by phone.
"Purely due to logistical reasons, we've decided to move the match to Ahmedabad."
Punjab were playing Delhi Capitals in Dharamsala on Friday, but that match was called off midway through due to floodlights at HPCA stadium malfunctioning.
Punjab were 122-1 when the match was called off. Only 10.1 overs of the first innings were bowled after Punjab chose to bat first.
"Due to a power outage in the area, one of the light towers at the HPCA stadium malfunctioned. BCCI regrets the inconvenience caused to the in-stadium attendees," BCCI said in a statement reported by ESPN Cricinfo.
The IPL is the world's richest Twenty20 tournament, with celebrity owners and teams offering mouth-watering contracts to attract cricket's best talents.
Despite the prevailing volatility, Saikia said the foreign players in the 10-team league had no apprehensions about continuing their participation.
"They are quite comfortable. Everyone in the league is comfortable," Saikia said.
"The safety and security of every player - be it a local player or a foreigner - every match official and every fan is important for us.
"We have the clearance of every single authority."
Bilateral cricket remains suspended between India and Pakistan, who play each other only in multi-team events and mostly at neutral venues. Pakistan players are not allowed in the IPL.
New Zealand Cricket Players Association chief executive officer Heath Mills said his organisation had been in regular contact with the New Zealand players in the Pakistan Super League and Indian Premier League and they were feeling "anxious" and "uneasy".
"All our security advice is that they're very safe in the hotels and where they are currently with a good security blanket around them so in terms of their safety we're comfortable but obviously given what is going on all the players in Pakistan and India they would much rather not be there at the moment and be making their way home."
Mills said the NZCPA and cricket boards, like New Zealand Cricket, were limited in what they could do.
"The players are there as independent contractors they've gone there under their own steam and really the decisions about whether the competitions continue or not are the responsibility of the Pakistan Cricket Board or the Indian Cricket Board, so we're at their whim to a certain extent.
"But it's important we put pressure on where we can and we communicate to people around the world and in Pakistan and India that everyone's unhappy, they're very anxious, and they'd certainly far sooner be home now than playing cricket."
The PSL players did not have family with them during the competition and Mills said watching from afar they were "very very uneasy".
- RNZ Sport / Reuters
