Zaheer Abbas wants PCB to allow cricketers to play in ICL

Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should allow the players to play in the India Cricket League (ICL) because it is no threat to Pakistani cricket.

Karachi, Aug 10 : Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should allow the players to play in the India Cricket League (ICL) because it is no threat to Pakistani cricket.

However, he added that any player interested in joining the Essel Group's ICL should be released if his contract allowed him to join the national team whenever required.

"If any Pakistani player is planning to join the ICL, I will advise him to get a clause inserted in his contract that he would be released whenever required by the national team. We agreed to play in the Kerry Packer series only after Mr Packer agreed to let us play for Pakistan whenever required," he said.

"In any case, I believe there aren't many great players in the current line-up whose absence can really affect the team's performance. Probably Mohammad Yousuf is the only player whose absence in the Test team will be felt by Pakistan," he added.

Reacting to the PCB's tough stance over the ICL that any player joining the parallel league will not play for Pakistan again, he said the board should not bother much about it, as any player would join it only for money.

"Cricketers are professionals who earn their bread and butter by playing the game... I mean, the Board will not give anything to player once they stopped playing cricket for Pakistan, which is why I don't think they should make it a big deal," The News quoted him, as saying.

Zaheer's statement assumes significance as seven Pakistani current players, including Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Shahid Afridi and Younis Khan, were offered lucrative contracts to play ICL's Twenty20 tournament, but they rejected it.

Former West Indies captain Brian Lara has confirmed joining ICL as one of the captains of 16 teams to feature in the league, while former Indian players Madan Lal and Balwinder Singh Sandhu would join as coach.

Reports were making the rounds that former Australian bowlers Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, and ex New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns would also join the league.

Former Indian captain Kapil Dev has been appointed as the head of the Executive Board of the Zee Group backed ICL.

Other members of the Executive Board include former wicketkeeper and ex-chief selector of the BCCI Kiran More, former England captain Tony Greig and Australian cricketer-turned-commentator Dean Jones.

The Zee Group has announced that the ICL will be set up with a corpus of 100 crore rupees. It would have six teams or clubs in its initial year.

Within three years, the number of teams would be increased to 16. Each team in the league would have four international players.

Zee will also appoint talent scouts in all Indian states to hunt for young players to play in the ICL.

ANI