Babar Azam and Shahid Afridi rescued unscathed after blast in Quetta causes panic
Many of the Pakistan cricketers such as Babar Azam, who is the current skipper of the Pakistan side. and Shahid Afridi. who formerly was the chairman of the selection committee for Pakistan, were safely escorted back to their dressing rooms in Quetta after a bomb blast 4 km away from the stadium.
Afridi and Babar played in the exhibition game for Peshawar Zalmi against Quetta Gladiators. This game was held before the start of the Pakistan Super League, which will start on February 13 on Monday. The exhibition game was held at the Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti Cricket Stadium on Sunday, February 5.
The blast occurred a few miles away from where the exhibition game was held at Quetta. Five people were injured due to an explosion that happened in the Police Lines area. The status of the match was hanging in the balance and the outcome was not looking bright, but in the end, the match got the go-ahead after a slight delay in proceedings.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the blast that had occurred
“As soon as the explosion happened, as a precautionary measure, the match was stopped and players taken to the dressing room for a while. Later, after the green signal, the match resumed,” a police official said. The Men behind the attack were Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who said that they orchestrated the attack. The stadium was a full house despite the commotion that unfolded nearby.
The PSL has been held mostly in Karachi, Multan, Rawalpindi and Lahore but the fans from Baloch also wanted Quetta to get PSL status and games to be hosted there. Keeping this in mind, the exhibition match was played at Quetta. Zalmi will be led by Babar Azam in place of Wahab Riaz this season.
The Multan Sultans and the Lahore Qalandars will battle it out in the opening game at Multan Cricket Stadium. The Qalandars are the current title holders in the PSL and they defeated Sultans in the last edition to clinch the trophy. The PSL will be held in Pakistan entirely and not in the UAE as it happened previously.
