Champions League route cleared for Faisalabad

Faisalabad Wolves, Pakistan's domestic Twenty20 champions, will travel to India to take part in the Champions League T20 after the Indian Embassy in Pakistan granted the players their visas following days of uncertainty.

The Faisalabad players had dispersed on Thursday evening from their training camp and went home assuming they would need time to pack if the visas were issued. The PCB had also told ESPNcricinfo that the visas had neither been issued nor denied. On Friday, the PCB asked the players to report at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore because the visas had been obtained, a Faisalabad player told ESPNricinfo.

The players are scheduled to depart in two batches; those in Lahore are due to leave on Saturday while three players in the Pakistan national team - Misbah-ul-Haq, Saeed Ajmal and Ehsan Adil - are due to fly from Zimbabwe on the completion of the current series. The last day of the ongoing second Test in Harare is on Saturday.

Faisalabad will be only the second Pakistan team to take part in the Champions League and the first in India - Sialkot Stallions competed in the 2012 tournament in South Africa. They play their first match on September 17 in Mohali against Otago Volts.

A team from Pakistan had been invited for the first edition in 2008 but that tournament was postponed because of the terror attacks in Mumbai and no further invitation was issued to Pakistan until 2012.