Pakistan releases top players for T10 league, claim organisers

By
Faizan Lakhani
|

KARACHI: The organisers of a T-10 Cricket tournament in Sharjah have claimed that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has released its top players for the league, scheduled to be held in December.

“PCB releases star players for T10 Cricket League in UAE,” said the press release issued by the organisers of the event on Wednesday evening adding that PCB Chairman Najam Sethi has extended his backing for the inaugural T10 Cricket League to be held in the UAE in December.

“The PCB’s approval means Pakistan stars such as Shahid Afridi, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Amir, Babar Azam, Ahmed Shehzad and Fakhar Zaman, amongst top Pakistani centrally contracted players will feature in the upcoming T10 Cricket League player draft in November,” said the statement by T-TEN League.

Najam Sethi had earlier told media in Karachi that PCB will release players if they’re not required for national duty.

Sources have told Geo.tv that the organisers have pulled the proposed dates of the tournament by few days to ensure participation of Pakistani players.

“PCB had told that players can’t be made available in the last week of December as it will clash with Pakistan’s series with New Zealand and preparation for the series,” the source said.

“The organisers of the event said to PCB that they’ll manage dates of the tournament according to the availability of Pakistani players, so it will now be held in the second week of December, maybe 10 to 12 days earlier than the initially planned dates,” the source added.

Teams in the event are based in and around the South Asian subcontinent. Icons of business, movie industry and sport, both in and around the region, including Bollywood actors have bought teams which include – Punjabi Legends (Inzamam Ul Haq and Intizar Ul Haq) led by Misbah-ul-Haq, Pakhtoons (Habib Khan) led by Shahid Afridi, Maratha Arabians (Parvez Khan, Bollywood star: Sohail Khan and Ali Tumbi led by Virender Sehwag), Bengal Tigers (Anis Sajan, Rizwan Sajan, Sirajuddin Alam and Neelesh Bhagatanar), Colombo Lions (Vijay Vyas, Kashif Shahzad and Mohomed Morani led by Shoaib Malik) and Kerala Kings (Hussain Adam Ali and Dr.Shafi Ul Mulk).