LAHORE: Mehar Mohammad Khalil, the brave bus driver who saved the Sri Lankan team in 2009, has remained unable to buy tickets to the game, despite being hailed as a national hero.
“Neither have I got a response from the people I contacted nor are the tickets for the final available anywhere,” Khalil told the reporters.
In March 2009, Khalil was driving the Sri Lankan team bus to Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium when it was ambushed by a rocket launcher and machine gun-wielding terrorists in an attack that left eight people dead and seven players injured.
The attack brought a sudden end to international cricket in Pakistan.
With reward money from Sri Lanka’s government and donations from well-wishers, Khalil started his own bus company.
In 2015, the 45-year-old was one of the guests of honour at the same stadium, where Pakistan played Zimbabwe in their first home international since the 2009 terrorist attack- in another attempt to bring international cricket back to Pakistan.
Now, the PSL final is scheduled to be held in Lahore on March 5. Khalil says he wishes to watch the PSL final in his home ground.”The enemies do not want the revival of international cricket in Pakistan,” he said, adding, “The entire nation wishes so and it must be revived.”
Khalil is just one of the many cricket enthusiasts who have been unable to purchase a ticket for the final given the high demand for it. Moreover, to their utter dismay, some even claimed that the tickets they bought online have been cancelled all of a sudden.
