PSL to make up for Bangladesh snub: PCB
Zaka promises ‘increased effort’ to bring foreign players.
PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
KARACHI:
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Zaka Ashraf believes that the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is the ideal alternative tor reviving international cricket in the country if Bangladesh refuse to tour.
The board has gone to great lengths for the past year to host Bangladesh in order to make a breakthrough in resuming international cricket in Pakistan. However, former and current players have blasted the PCB for giving too much importance to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), stating that it was time for them to explore other options.
“Bangladesh weren’t the last option as we have other alternatives to resume international cricket in Pakistan,” Ashraf told The Express Tribune. “We’re in the process of staging our own Twenty20 league where top foreign players will be taking part. Meanwhile, we’re also in discussion with some other countries about hosting their national teams.”
According to Ashraf, the PCB has given continuous support to Bangladesh by allowing players to take part in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) with the understanding that in turn BCB would send its team to tour Pakistan.
“The PCB have been ditched twice by the BCB even though they promised to send their team —instead they changed their stance and as a result we decided against sending our players in the BPL,” he claimed. The chairman said that the PSL would be on the board’s top priority list and they would double their efforts to make it a successive Twenty20 league, particularly by bringing top Test players from England, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, West Indies and Sri Lanka.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 17th, 2013.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Zaka Ashraf believes that the Pakistan Super League (PSL) is the ideal alternative tor reviving international cricket in the country if Bangladesh refuse to tour.
The board has gone to great lengths for the past year to host Bangladesh in order to make a breakthrough in resuming international cricket in Pakistan. However, former and current players have blasted the PCB for giving too much importance to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), stating that it was time for them to explore other options.
“Bangladesh weren’t the last option as we have other alternatives to resume international cricket in Pakistan,” Ashraf told The Express Tribune. “We’re in the process of staging our own Twenty20 league where top foreign players will be taking part. Meanwhile, we’re also in discussion with some other countries about hosting their national teams.”
According to Ashraf, the PCB has given continuous support to Bangladesh by allowing players to take part in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) with the understanding that in turn BCB would send its team to tour Pakistan.
“The PCB have been ditched twice by the BCB even though they promised to send their team —instead they changed their stance and as a result we decided against sending our players in the BPL,” he claimed. The chairman said that the PSL would be on the board’s top priority list and they would double their efforts to make it a successive Twenty20 league, particularly by bringing top Test players from England, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, West Indies and Sri Lanka.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 17th, 2013.