3 Pakistan players defy PCB orders to play in T10 league

The ongoing tussle between Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Pakistani players have taken a new as well as bizarre turn after three players defied the orders to play in T10 League in Abu Dhabi. All three players have sensationally walked out of their first-class teams in order to play in the lucrative tournament.

Last month, the PCB revoked conditional No Objection Certificates (NOCs) given to its players to feature in the T10 League which starts from November 15. In their official statement, the board said that it had to take the decision in order to manage the players’ workload, continued work on their fitness levels to ensure primacy and participation of its player in its premier Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

The T10 League is set to clash with a fitness and medical assessment camp at the National Cricket Academy, as well as several rounds of the QeA Trophy. Thus PCB decided against allowing its players to travel to Abu Dhabi and play in the competition. However, the orders didn’t make any difference for fast bowler Haris Rauf and batsmen Mirza Ehsan Baig and Sohail Akhtar.

All three players have decided to leave their first-class teams and relocate to Abu Dhabi. The trio, however, is yet to obtain the mandatory NOC from the PCB to play in the tournament.  A well-informed source revealed that the three players were planning to fly out to Abu Dhabi and try to play for the Lahore Qalanders team, Qalandars in the T10 league.

“These three players informed their teams in domestic first-class cricket after the national T20 championship that they couldn’t play any longer in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy as they were going to play for their Pakistan Super League franchise, Lahore Qalanders,” the source was quoted as saying by TOI.

“Basically, all three told their coaches that they were not interested in red-ball cricket and were white-ball specialists and left their teams,” the source added.

NOC must to play in T10

Meanwhile, a PCB source said that the board is satisfied the players would not be able to play in the competition without getting the NOC. Since the T10 is an ICC recognized event, the players need permission from their parent body to take part in it. It will now be interesting to see how the PCB reacts when the players approach them for the NOCs.

“The T10 league is an event recognized by the ICC so players have to show NOCs of their home boards to play in the event,” a PCB official said.

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