T20 World Cup: Pakistan players book flight tickets for Colombo

Pakistan's players are scheduled to fly to Colombo on Monday despite uncertainty over their participation in the upcoming T20 World Cup, according to media reports.

Despite talk of boycotting the World Cup in solidarity with Bangladesh, the Pakistan Cricket Board is likely to approve the team's participation in the mega-event by Friday, reported Telecom Asia Sport.

'Despite the uncertainty over the participation on the World Cup, Pakistan team is booked with Australia team to fly out to Colombo via Air Lanka flight from Lahore. We hope that by Friday the PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi will have cleared the team’s participation in the mega event,' a source told Telecom Asia Sport.

Pakistan will take on Australia in a three-match T20I series starting on Thursday before the two teams fly out together to Colombo for the T20

World Cup.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi has set Friday or Monday as the deadline for confirming Pakistan's participation or withdrawal from the T20 World Cup, a situation which emerged after Bangladesh's ouster from the tournament.

Pakistan is contemplating a boycott of its marquee clash against co-hosts India in Colombo on February 15.

Sources said the Prime Minister was briefed on multiple scenarios, including the possibility of Pakistan not sending its team for the T20 World Cup, or participating in the event but boycotting the high-profile match against India scheduled for February 15 in Colombo, if that course of action helped Bangladesh cricket in any manner.

The PCB had earlier maintained that the government would take the final call on Pakistan's participation in the event in view of the evolving situation following Bangladesh's exit from the competition.

Bangladesh, who have been replaced by Scotland in the 20-team event, had sought shifting of their matches to Sri Lanka, citing security concerns in India, but the ICC rejected the request, saying no such verifiable threat existed.

Pakistan are scheduled to open their T20 World Cup campaign against the Netherlands on February 7 in Colombo, followed by matches against the USA (February 10), India (February 15) and Namibia (February 18).

PCB announced its 15-man squad on Sunday, including experienced Babar Azam but excluding Haris Rauf. The squad will be led by Salman Ali Agha.