Here we go again: the will-he, won’t he has been going on for over a year. Now it appears that Mohammad Yousuf has decided that his first move was always the right move. But is it?
The first time Yousuf supposedly went into hiding and left the Pakistan Cricket Board fuming and fretting over his whereabouts was when he joined up with the ICL after being overlooked for the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007 in South Africa by Pakistan.
But Yousuf’s play for the ICL never materialized. The reason, he says, was because he was misguided by certain lobbies within the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) who told him not only was he in Pakistan’s future plans but also, in line for a lucrative deal with the IPL. Yousuf fell for it and the ICL has to bring in a court order to ensure Yousuf did not backtrack. Yousuf remained on the fringes of the IPL trade but stayed out of the ultimate fanfare of the summer.
Now it appears that Yousuf discreetly entered India to complete the formalities with the ICL. This time round though, it comes as a bit of a shocker. After all he was named in the squad for the series against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi later in the month. He was also slated to be part of the Pakistan team for the quadrangular Twenty20 series in Canada but had visa problems that kept him out. He now appears sour that the PCB did not help out with the visa problem.
But it appears there is a bigger problem as hand as it seems too flimsy an excuse to once again turn his back on Pakistan. While he still wants to play in the national team, Yousuf is clearly under some apprehension, not to mention delusion, because the ICC put the BCCI in charge to take of the ICL’s recognition woes only to end up with nothing substantial coming out of it. Yousuf may have finally signed himself over and called his career over as far as Pakistan is concerned.
It is still unclear where he will eventually be slotted in. But until he takes the field for the ICL, further defections back and forth cannot be ruled out. But with the court cases being filed against each other, Yousuf’s fence sitting will be brought to an end, one way or another.
For more of Yousuf and the tales that have entailed his life, do catch up on:
