Four UAE international cricketers have received their visas with three of them flying out to Canada on Wednesday evening.

UAE captain Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza and Mohammad Naveed travelled to Toronto late on Wednesday for the Global T20 tournament after their visit visa was finally issued earlier that afternoon. They will be joined by Shaiman Anwar who will fly from Dubai on Thursday.

Given it’s a 14-hour flight from the UAE, Mustafa and Naveed, who are part of Toronto Nationals, are expected to miss their team’s opener against Vancouver Knights on Thursday evening (midnight UAE time).

The UAE quartet are likely to feature on Saturday when Nationals take on an Edmonton Royals, whose squad includes Raza and Anwar.

The inaugural competition has attracted some of the biggest names in the game including Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Shahid Afridi as well as disgraced stars Steve Smith and David Warner.