LAHORE: Motorists and motorcyclists have run out of patience and started blaring horns during the movement of cricket teams participating in the HBL Pakistan Super League.

The teams travel from their hotel accommodation to Gaddafi Stadium or the LCCA Ground, the latter serving as a practice venue for the six teams.

At around 7:30pm on Monday, traffic wardens began halting all vehicles approaching Muslim Town Mor to secure the Canal Road bridge, where a team was expected to pass through the canal’s bridge at Muslim Town to go back to its hotel accommodation on The Mall. However, even by 8pm, the wardens had not received clearance to reopen the road. After being stuck for about 20 minutes, frustrated motorists in the nearly one-kilometre-long traffic jam began blowing their horns in protest.

Strict security measures have become standard since the resumption of international cricket in Pakistan over a decade ago. Yet, authorities continue to rely on traditional traffic control methods, causing a great deal of inconvenience to the public rather than adopting modern security technologies that could minimise disruption.

Motorists lose patience, blare horns to pressurise wardens

“We are bound to obey orders from higher authorities,” a traffic inspector at Muslim Town Mor told Dawn on condition of anonymity. “Yes, people are suffering, but ensuring the security of foreign teams and players is our first priority and in the national interest.”

Security forces use two primary routes for team movements — sometimes via Liberty Market and Gulberg, and other times along Canal Road, turning onto Ferozepur Road, which remains heavily congested almost 20 hours a day. Muslim Town Mor is a critical junction connecting areas like Johar Town, Thokar Niaz Beg, Wapda Town, Jallo Mor, Harbanspura, and further linking Ferozepur Road to Kasur.

A driver hired by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to transport players said such tight security is not enforced when individual cricketers arrive at airports. “If the authorities considered the public’s suffering, they would find better ways to minimise problems,” said a trader stuck in Monday’s traffic jam. “Instead of being a source of entertainment, cricket events are now causing mental torture.”

A PCB official, on the condition of anonymity, said the current traffic disruptions would likely continue until the PCB completes construction of a hotel near Gaddafi Stadium and the LCCA Ground, on a building recently acquired for teams accommodation.

“Our main priority should be to complete the building, on which a lot of work is yet to be done to transform it from a building to a hotel accommodation,” the PCB official said.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2025