Nearly half the Hong Kong cricket squad have made a mad dash to Pakistan for new electronic passports so they can travel to Dubai for the ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament.
The six players are 4,800 kilometres away in Karachi waiting for visas.
Hussain Butt, Nizakat Khan, Waqas Barkat, Munir Dar, Adil Mehmood and Asif Khan were forced to go to Karachi to get new passports after it was discovered Dubai immigration authorities no longer accepted their older travel documents.
'Thankfully we found out about this in time and not when we arrived in Dubai,' Hong Kong head coach Charlie Burke said yesterday.
'The people arranging our visas informed us the passports of these six players were not valid in Dubai and we had to quickly make arrangements to send them home to Pakistan so they could get the newer versions. They have all got the new passports and are waiting for visas. Hopefully, they will be able to join the rest of the squad.'
Seven other players will leave from Hong Kong tonight, and Mark Chapman, who is studying in New Zealand, will fly to Pakistan on Saturday.