Numerous Pakistanis, including captain Babar Azam, will participate in the Hajj this year, according to sources on Monday.
They claimed that the 28-year-old cricketer’s mum will travel with him on the fortunate journey.
According to the reports, Babar would fly to Saudi Arabia around the second week of June. Reliable sources, however, reported that a number of other cricketers, including Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Faheem Ashraf, and Fakhar Zaman, will also be making the Hajj this year.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, a former Test cricketer for Pakistan, will also complete the Hajj with his wife.
According to Mufti Abdul Shakoor, the Minister for Religious Affairs, 179,210 Pakistani pilgrims will perform the Hajj this year.
Ramadan saw the performance of Umrah by Babar, Iftikhar, Faheem, and Haris Rauf, as well as other national cricket players.
The Pakistani side will not play an international match until late July, when they will go to Sri Lanka for a two-match Test series. If Sri Lanka makes the World Cup, the ICC Test Championship games may be changed to ODIs.
In order to schedule ODI games before the ICC World Cup, which will take place in India this year, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) are already in talks.
The PCB’s hosting of the Asia Cup in September of this year is also dubious, as is Pakistan’s participation.
The Asia Cup will now take place in a neutral site thanks to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) refusal to send their team to Pakistan. However, the PCB does not want to stage the event outside of Pakistan since it would interfere with its efforts to bring back international cricket in the nation.
The hybrid plan put out by the PCB, which would have allowed India the option to play their matches at a neutral site, is also unlikely to be accepted by the BCCI.
