Bangladesh leg-spinner Rishad Hossain has revealed frightening details about the foreign players including Tom Curran, Daryl Mitchell and others, who left Pakistan after the suspension of Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2025 for an indefinite period.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced the postponement of the remaining eight matches of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) season 10 for an indefinite period amid the cross-border tensions after India’s response to the ghastly terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians.
Overseas players in the PSL were flown out to the UAE from where they were booked on connecting flights to their final destinations.
Rishad, who was part of the Lahore Qalandars squad in PSL, revealed that it was scary to know that the airport from which their plane took off, came under missile attack after 20 minutes later.
“Alhamdulillah, we have reached Dubai after overcoming a crisis and I am feeling well now. After landing in Dubai, we heard that a missile struck the airport 20 minutes after we took off from the airport. The news was scary as well as sorrowful and now after reaching Dubai we are feeling relieved,” Rishad was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
“Whenever I go out to play, my family worries for me whether the situation is good or not and now when they heard the news about Pakistan – the bomb-blasts and the missile-strikes here and there- -naturally they were in tension. I personally tried to console them and tell them not to worry about me and they were quite normal,” he added.
The 22-year-old Hossain further mentioned that New Zealand cricketer Daryl Mitchell, told him he would never go to Pakistan again.
“Foreign players like Sam Billings, Daryl Mitchell, Kushal Perera, David Wiese, Tom Curran… all of them were so frightened… Landing in Dubai, Mitchell told me that he would never go to Pakistan again, especially in this kind of scenario. Overall, they all were horrified,” said Rishad.
Talking about Tom Curran’s plight, he said: “He (Tom Curran) went to the airport, but heard that the airport was closed. Then he started crying like a little child, that it took two or three people to handle him.
Rishad also revealed that the PCB chairman initially wanted to hold the remaining PSL matches in Karachi, but the decision changed after players raised safety concerns in a meeting with Mohsin Naqvi.
“The meeting was basically called to know our concerns, what we think about the current scenario. Almost all the foreign players said that the only safe place available for the later part of the tournament is Dubai,” he said.
“Yes, the PCB Chairman tried to convince us to conduct the remaining matches in Karachi. At that time he tried to hide from us that there were two drone attacks just the day before which we came to know later. Later all of us took the decision (to shift to Dubai) and the PCB Chairman helped us a lot to reach Dubai safely by the grace of Almighty Allah. Thanks to him and the Pakistan Cricket Board,” he concluded.
Leave a Reply