Pakistan Cricket Board blames India for players’ omission from IPL 4

The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmed, has blamed India for the exclusion of Pakistan players from next year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 tournament.

Ahmed claimed that India did not respond to queries about the participation of Pakistani players.

“We asked them about the participation of Pakistan players, but they did not give any response,” the Daily Times quoted him, as saying.

“From our end all the documentation that is needed, we undertake to provide them, whether that is permissions or no-objection certificates,” he added.

Ahmed said that Pakistan wanted its players to participate in the contest, which is a financial bonanza for those who take part, but rued that “(Pakistanis) playing or not in this event is not in our hands. We want Pakistan participation in the IPL, that is our official stand but obviously we need for the Indian board to talk to us.”

He said that under new rules framed by the IPL, no Pakistani player could take part in the league for any franchise before getting clearance from both boards. “No player can individually be approached or can approach any franchise now for a contract,” he said.

Ahmed also denied that any Pakistani player, or IPL teams, had asked for the no-objection certificate (NOC) from the PCB required to play.

“No player or franchise has approached us,” he said, adding, “They’ve actually revised the process of inducting players so any player who wants to participate will have to get permission and NOC from their board.”

The PCB’s response came after an IPL official had said on Tuesday that no Pakistan cricketers were on a list of 416 players for next month’s auction for the fourth edition of the tournament, which is scheduled to run from April 8 to May 22.

“The rules stipulate that a player must apply through his home board if he wanted to be put up for the auction. No names were received from Pakistan,” Ratnakar Shetty was quoted as saying.