Stani Army

In another demonstration of their lack of professionalism, the PCB has withdrawn and backed down in its selection of the three ICL players included in its preliminary Twenty20 World Cup squad of 30, causing more embarrassment for itself. We had hoped, in a previous post, that the board would show some fight and stand up to this ridiculous ICL ban but they have once again shown their lack of spine.

The question is what took place after the announcement of the squad to force this change and why was this not done before the squad was made public. It was said that the selectors were not aware that they required clearance from the ICC before announcing the squad but if you’re about to include players who are banned by the ICC, for an official ICC tournament, surely this would mean you may want to get clearance first right? Not to our selectors!

Had they kept the players in the squad, it would have indeed forced the ICC to take a look at the ICL situation which has been dragging on for some time now. Clearly, Pakistan would have had a strong legal case as the Sindh High Court ruling on ICL players taking part in domestic cricket clearly proved. No other team bar Bangladesh would have probably benefited from the inclusion of the ICL players as much as Pakistan which is probably why the ICC and the other boards can sit comfortable even though there is a big white elephant in the room.

It is inevitable that the ICL ban will be overturned so why not do it now? It is just frustrating that it’s taking so long and will most likely prevent talent such as Imran Nazir’s from being displayed at the ICC Twenty20 World Cup.

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