Pakistan moves T20 league, India suspends IPL

The Pakistan Super League (PSL) will move its remaining matches to the UAE, while India's cricket board announced suspension of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amid the rising cross-border tensions.

Thursday's PSL match in Rawalpindi was postponed amid escalating hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours, and Pakistan's cricket board chief Mohsin Naqvi said the decision to move the last eight games was made to ensure players avoid "possible reckless targeting".

"The PCB has always stood by the position that politics and sports need to be kept apart," Naqvi, also Pakistan's interior minister, said in a statement. "As a responsible organisation that has overcome adversities repeatedly and ensured that the game of cricket flourishes, it was important for us to ensure the mental well-being of all players participating in the PSL."

India's cricket board (BCCI) on Friday said IPL matches were suspended indefinitely.

It comes after the board had to move Sunday's IPL match in Dharamsala near the Pakistan border to Ahmedabad in the west. A match at the same venue in the northern city was abandoned midway due to what officials said was a power failure.

The two countries have been clashing since India struck multiple locations in Pakistan on Wednesday that it said were linked to the deadly attack in its restive region of Kashmir last month, in which it said Islamabad was involved.

Pakistan denied the accusation but both countries have exchanged cross-border firing and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other's airspace since then, with nearly four dozen people dying in the violence.