Chris Lynn and David Wiese have become the latest foreign players to leave Pakistan Super League (PSL) due to the coronavirus outbreak. Both players were playing for Lahore Qalandars. The pandemic has triggered a mass exodus of overseas players due to understandable reasons. Before Lynn and Wiese, a total of 15 overseas players had left Pakistan.
Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Tymal Mills, Liam Dawson, Liam Livingstone, Lewis Gregory, and James Vince, Carlos Braithwaite, Rilee Roussouw, Mitchell McClenaghan had earlier withdrawn from the PSL 2020 owing to the global pandemic. Along with the aforementioned players, Peshawar Zalmi head coach James Foster has left PSL too.
PSL is the only cricket tournament that is still in operation. A number of international series were called off too as a precautionary measure. The PCB, on its part, cut short the fifth edition of PSL by four days. The cricket board also decided to conduct the remaining games of the competition behind closed doors.
But that decision did not stop Wiese and Lynn from staying in Pakistan for the finals. Both players decided to leave the country after helping Lahore Qalandars to reach semi-finals for the very first time in Pakistan Super League history. Wiese took to Twitter to confirm his decision. He thanked the fans for the amazing experience as he tweeted:
It’s been an amazing experience playing for @lahoreqalandars in this years @thePSLt20
Unfortunately this is the end of the tournament for me but I would like to thank each and every Qalander fan for all ur support!I’ve teally enjoyed my time in Pakistan and hope to be back soon! pic.twitter.com/2bMzHQmGjU— David Wiese (@David_Wiese) March 15, 2020
Lynn echoed the same sentiments on Instagram, writing:
Chris Lynn starred in a monumental win against Multan Sultans.