ODI series between Pakistan and Afghanistan postponed until 2022

** The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced that the One-Day International (ODI) series between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been postponed until next year.**

Multiple factors including the players' mental health issues and lack of broadcast facilities led to the postponement of the series, the PCB said on its official Twitter handle late on Monday.

"PCB has accepted Afghanistan Cricket Board's (ACB) request to postpone next month’s ODI series due to players’ mental health issues, disruption in flight operations in Kabul, lack of broadcast facilities, and increased Covid-19 cases in Sri Lanka."

It said that both cricket boards will mutually decide the new schedule for the series in 2022.

The series had been surrounded by controversies since its announcement early in July. First, the cricket boards found it difficult to settle a slot for the series due to the Pakistan cricket team’s packed schedule this year.

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Once the series was scheduled for the week of September, the ACB failed to finalise a venue for its first-ever ODI home series against Pakistan. The board had to first move the series from the UAE, where it was initially planned, to Sri Lanka as venues there were unavailable due to the second leg of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021.

On Monday, however, it was reported that the Afghan cricket board has decided to shift the series to Pakistan due to logistical challenges.

“The series had to be moved out of Sri Lanka due to the logistic challenges in Afghanistan team’s travel,” Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) CEO Hamid Shinwari told ESPNcricinfo.