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Pakistani Players’ participation in IPL Season 2 still Undecided |
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Pitched By Cricket360 Reporter
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Wednesday, 25 March 2009 |
Indian Premier League is about to take a journey to another continent, the stake holders take the sigh of relief, cricket lovers are left hugely disappointed and amidst all these the players from India’s neighbor in the West still walks the will-it-won’t-it tightrope. While PCB had given its clearance months ago, mow it all depends on how much influence the franchises can exert on IPL management.
There is good news for those cricket watchers, who just swear by the adrenaline pumping spectacle of live cricket of the gung-ho Pakistani cricketers; there is still hope for the Pakistani players to take part in the IPL Season 2 . Although it did not go down well with at least 70% of the Indian population, the transfer of IPL seems to spark hope at least among some and they are none other than the extremely talented brigade of Pakistani cricketers including Sohail Tanvir, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Younis Khan and a few more. With IPL traveling to South Africa, the Pakistani Players can now approach their respective franchises for a rehiring. But first they have to obtain a no-objection certificate from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). When earlier it was made clear by the governments at both sides, that the Pakistani players won’t be allowed to play in IPL, many franchises had replaced them with other players. Now that the upcoming cricket tournament is happening outside India, the franchises may decide to reinstate them. And in that case, they will need to first seek the approval of IPL in writing. And it is the all-powerful IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, who will take a final call on the subject. Although Modi had earlier ruled out possibilities of taking back Pakistani players in their respective teams, despite IPL moving overseas, there are suggestions that the IPL management can rethink the issue following the tremendous lobbying from a few franchisees.
In its inaugural session, Pakistani players stole the show with their aggressive cricket and the teams are definitely going to suffer this year from the unavailability of these brilliant cricketers. However, Kolkata Knight Riders who had in its team as many as four players from Pakistan - Umar Gul, Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Akhtar - are going to be most affected. In a dramatic bid, the Kolkata franchise had caught Bangladesh all-rounder Mashrafe Mortaza in their net as the replacement for Umar Gul. Brendon McCullum was hired for Butt and Chris Gayle for Hafeez, yet they are keen on getting back the players to get an edge over their rival teams. Similarly the Champions, Rajasthan Royals would be overjoyed to get back Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal back in their team. Younis Khan, who was a part of the winning team last year, opines that the absence of Pakistani players would lead to a loss of popularity for Indian Premier League in Pakistan. “The franchises running teams in the IPL know that Indian and Pakistani players are the biggest attractions in the league,” Younis said.
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