PSL to go ahead despite 10 foreign cricketers leaving

 The Pakistan Super League will go ahead despite the coronavirus outbreak and the withdrawal Friday of 10 foreign players.

The Pakistan Cricket Board said English players Alex Hales, Tymal Mills, Jason Roy, James Vince, Tom Banton, Liam Dawson, Lewis Gregory and Liam Livingstone are among those who will be flying home.

Carlos Brathwaite of the West Indies and Rilee Rossouw of South Africa will also be leaving the Twenty20 event.

All players were given the option of returning home after a conference call between PCB officials and franchise owners on Friday.

“It is important to emphasize and clarify that the main concern of many of the players who have chosen to return home revolves around avoiding a potential situation where they might become stranded either due to flight cancellations or border closures in their own countries,” PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said in a statement. “We will continue to assess and review the situation and will not hesitate to make what we believe are the right decisions for everyone involved.”

While the PCB has yet to decide whether the four remaining games in Lahore — including the final on March 22 — will be played without fans, it has already announced that the four matches in Karachi’s 33,000-seat National Stadium will be played without spectators.

Peshawar Zalmi, which will take on Multan Sultans in Karachi, will be most affected with the withdrawal of the foreign players after Brathwaite, Dawson, Gregory, Livingstone and Banton decided to go home.

There have been more than 128,000 cases and 4,700 deaths globally since the virus outbreak started late last year.

Most people quickly recover from the virus after experiencing only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks.