Usha Krira Chakra retreated from their plan of appeal to the league committee of the Bangladesh Hockey Federation to halt the ongoing Premier Division League after getting clearance from the Special Branch (SB) of Police for bringing five Pakistani players.

Having released the Malaysian players after the Club Cup tournament, joint defending champions Usha KC found themselves in trouble to field a playing eleven due to the suspension and injury problems of the local players coupled with the unavailability of the Pakistani players due to visa complicacies.

“There was uncertainty over the clearance of five Pakistani players from the SB till this noon despite our having met the SB officials. But they [SB] called us in the afternoon and gave the all-clear for the Pakistani players' entry into Bangladesh,” informed Usha manager Rafiqul Islam Kamal.

Usha played their first match against Wari Club without their foreign recruits as the Pakistani players were kept waiting for the visa last week and the club will have to play today's match against Bangladesh Railway without those players too.

Out of the five players, Aleem Bilal, Syed Kashif Shah and Ali Shan are part of Pakistan's national team while Asfaq Niwaz and buhammad Irfan Junior were recently called for the national team's camp. All the five players are expected to arrive here by Wednesday.

“Now the SB clearance will be sent to the Bangladesh High Commission in Pakistan through the foreign ministry and we are expecting that they will obtain the visa tomorrow [Tuesday] and arrive here by Wednesday,” said Kamal.

A total of 20 foreign players including 15 Pakistanis are currently participating in the ongoing league for six different clubs. Abahani have five Pakistanis, Mohammedan SC and Shadharan Bima have four Pakistanis each while Dhaka Mariner Youngs Club and Bangladesh SC are fielding one Pakistani player each.

Meanwhile, in the matches played yesterday, Mohammedan thrashed Azad Sporting Club 12-0 while Dhaka Wanderers Club defeated Sonali Bank 7-4.