PCB to overturn ban on ICL players

Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is all set to lift the ban on its Indian Cricket League (ICL) players on Wednesday. PCB chairman Ijaz Butt is due to address a press conference in Lahore, soon after PCB legal adviser, Shan Gul visits the Sindh High court in Karachi to give the PCB’s version on the ban on ICL players.

The court last week suspended the ban on the players, paving the way for their return to first class cricket. There were then demands from the players for a return to international cricket.

However the PCB, according to sources, passed the court judgement to the International Cricket Council (ICC) who reiterated their stance that it was upto respective countries to deal with the issue.

Around 21 players who featured in the ICL were barred from playing in and for Pakistan as the league was not recognised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and by the ICC.

An ICC spokesman reiterated the ICC’s stance on the ICL. “Banning a player from playing in domestic cricket because he participated in the ICL is not a matter for the ICC. Instead, only a member board can take such action.

The ICC Executive Board, therefore, resolved in 2008 that Member Boards should take such action against ICL players as they considered appropriate, in light of and in accordance with the requirements of their own local laws.”

The PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, last week urged star batsman Mohammad Yousuf to snap his ties with the ICL to get his place in the national side back.

Butt, after attending ICC’s meeting in Octber last year, had said that ICC and BCCI were on weaker legal grounds if the ICL took them to court over recognition. He reiterated this stance before the ICC Executive Board meeting in Perth on earlier this month. At the meeting, the ICC deferred a decision on the ICL’s application for recognition.

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