Pakistan issues visas to Afghan cricket team

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has issued visas to Afghan cricket team who will travel to Sri Lanka to play a series against Babar Azam-led team.

In a tweet yesterday, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry confirmed the issuance of the visa and hoped that the Afghan cricket team would bring smiles on the faces of its people.

“My sincere prayers and best wishes were with you,” he wrote the last line of tweet in Pushto language.

Following the stunning victory of the Taliban, many of the players in cricket-mad Afghanistan’s beloved national team are finding it difficult to focus on sport.

“The fear is there in their eyes, in their voices, even in their messages,” pace bowler Naveen-ul-Haq said of his teammates in Kabul during a BBC radio interview broadcast at the weekend.

“The Taliban have said (they) won’t be troubling any sportsman, but nobody knows,” added Haq, speaking from the West Indies where he plays in the Caribbean Premier League.

The return of the Taliban has sparked widespread fear in Afghanistan and in the international community, reviving memories of their brutal first stint in power from 1996 to 2001 when they imposed a harsh version of Islamic law.