Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided against granting No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to its players for participating in the second edition of the 10-over cricket league in UAE. The decision comes after questions were raised against the league’s finances.
Earlier, the Dubai-based league suffered a blow as the league President, Salman Iqbal of ARY Media Group, stepped down attributing it to the lack the transparency.
PCB Chairman, Ehsan Mani, has written to the global cricketing monitoring body, International Cricket Council (ICC), seeking assurance about the finances of the league and how its finances are being fueled. The decision to write to the ICC came as the league has been sanctioned by the ICC.
Mani said that keeping the players out of the dispute and protecting them is his top priority.
This year’s T10 league will feature 8 teams, up from 6 last year, with 28 matches to be played in 10 days. The teams have already picked their icon players while retaining 4 from the previous squads; new teams will pick all the players in the draft expected to be held soon.
Mani reiterated that the board will re-evaluating all the leagues with due diligence as to how credible the leagues are in terms of the transparency and the finances fuelling the leagues. Regarding T10, there is no single piece of paper which shows how the finances are being managed, Mani observed.
The previous Chairman, Najam Sethi, had committed that the Pakistani players will be available for the first two seasons of the league despite reservations from the PSL franchises. However, Salman Iqbal managed to win Najam Sethi’s confidence. The commitment now stands revoked as the Chairman has changed.
Ehsan Mani questioned the participation of Pakistani players in the league, saying, “I think the only criteria that was considered was how much money the PCB and the players will get. The players’ workload wasn’t taken into account”.
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