The Indian Premier League could see a host of Pakistani cricketers making their comeback into the tournament for the next season. The IPL has set a deadline of 20th November for the Pakistan Cricket Board to send them the NOCs for the participation of the cricketers, and are now working on the paper-work for the visas.
The second edition of the tournament, which was held in South Africa, did not see a single Pakistani cricketer feature in it, as the ties between the two countries – India and Pakistan – had deteriorated following the last year’s attacks in Mumbai. This had led to the PCB disallowing the players to travel to India, where the tournament was first supposed to be held. 11 players from Pakistan had played in the first edition of the IPL, but only four contracts were retained by the IPL last year.
Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Salman Butt and Mohammed Hafeez had their contracts ended, whereas Umar Gul, (Kolkata), Misbah-ul-Haq (Bangalore), Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir (Rajasthan) do have their contracts, and should continue to play for their own sides.
The Pakistan cricket board had been interested in having their players involve themselves in the tournament again, and Ejaz Butt had made a trip to meet the IPL committee regarding the same. The President of PCB had then requested the IPL committee to send the invites so that the Pakistani government could expedite the process of visas to India.
The COO of the PCB, Wasim Bari has said that NOCs have already been sent and the visa process will soon begin. This would happen only after the invitations are sent across.
Pakistan had won the second edition of the ICC World T20 and hence it is expected that a lot of its players will be in demand by the franchises. Shahid Afridi is the current captain of the T20I side, and his side has yet to lose a single game under his captaincy. Add that to his batting and bowling skills, Afridi is likely to attract a huge bid from many of the franchises. Apart from him, there are other cricketers as well, who may be bid for as well, and these include the likes of Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Aamer, and the ICL returns, Naved-ul-Hasan Rana and Abdul Razzaq.
