Herschelle Gibbs lashes out at BCCI for threatening cricketers playing KPL

South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs Saturday slammed the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) for threatening players and stopping them from playing in the Kashmir Premier League (KPL).

"Completely unnecessary of the @BCCI to bring their political agenda with Pakistan into the equation and trying to prevent me playing in the @kpl_20," Gibbs wrote on Twitter, deploring the attitude of the Indian board.

"Also threatening me saying they won’t allow me entry into India for any cricket related work. Ludicrous," he tweeted after it emerged that the BCCI has threatened foreign players through their agents, saying that if they went to Kashmir, the doors of Indian cricket, including the IPL, would be closed for them.

Following the threat from the Indian cricket board, all foreign cricketers withdrew from the event which is set to begin on August 6.

The six foreign cricketers, who have excused themselves from the KPL, are Herschelle Gibbs, Matt Prior, Phil Mustard, Owais Shah, Tenu Best and Monty Panesar.

Sources said that the BCCI officials contacted the English and African cricket boards and threatened to ban their players from entering India if they participated in the KPL.

The English and African boards stopped their players from taking part in the KPL until further orders.

Taking stock of the new situation and considering the security of the foreign players, the KPL management apologised to the remaining foreign players.

However, KPL President Arif Malik has said that the tournament will go ahead as scheduled, adding that Pakistani cricketers will participate.