In a move seen as directly opposing the BCCI’s stringent measures regarding the ICL, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced its 30 member probable squad by inducting ICL players in the frame. The late withdrawl then appears equally surprising as well.
After much haranguing when the Indian government opposed India’s tour to Pakistan in early January, Director General of Cricket, Javed Miandad, and ECB Chairman, Ejaz Butt, indicated that there was pressure to recognize the large contingent of players signed up for the ICL. It was a move aimed to defy the BCCI after the tour was cancelled.
It then came as further surprise when the PCB actually named its list of 30 probables and included the like of Abdur Razzaq, Imran Nazir, Rana Naved ul hasan, in the squad for the ICC World Twenty20 Championship in the UK in June. By including the ICL players, Pakistan was clearly testing the ICC who so far has not been able to make an authoritative decision on the status of the ICL and that is largely because of the BCCI elements within the ICC Committee itself.
While the ICL is determined to drag the ICC to court should the meeting in Dubai fail, the PCB found the ICC concerned over the move and in less than forty-eight hours, decided to remove the players, perhaps not to further ire the international cricket body rather than actually be concerned over the ICL contracts as they have now stated.
Perhaps this was a little missile test and more may be on the cards and not just from Pakistan.
30 probables squad originally named: Younis Khan (capt), Salman Butt, Nasir Jamshed, Khalid Latif, Shahzaib Hasan, Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Amin, Misbah-ul-Haq, Faisal Iqbal, Fawad Alam, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Yasir Arafat, Kamran Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Aamer, Wahab Riaz, Imran Ali, Danish Kaneria, Abdul Rehman, Yasir Shah, Kamran Akmal (wk), Sarfraz Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Imran Nazir
