Islamabad, Sep 5: The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) No Objection Certificate (NOC) policy has significantly reduced the demand for Pakistani players in international T20 leagues.
The unclear guidelines for NOCs, which national players need to participate in foreign T20 leagues, have confused, going away many cricketers sidelined from major tournaments.
This problem was made clear during Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) draft. BBL teams first shown interest in signing Pakistani cricket players, but they needed to confirm their availability.
However, Pakistani players were unable to give specific replies because of the ambiguity surrounding the NOCs, which caused BBL teams to lose interest.
Thus, only Usama Mir was selected in the draft, while 69 other players, including prominent players like Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Zaman Khan, and Fakhar Zaman, were not selected.
Two BBL clubs made approaches for Rauf, but he was passed over because of his availability issues.
He was looking at ways to get special permission to play in a third league, even though he had already participated in two.
Rauf’s exclusion calls into question his selection for Pakistan’s next series, which includes games against England in which the board has not made it apparent that he is a part of the plans.
He is still keen to play red-ball and white-ball cricket for Pakistan despite the uncertainty.
