PCB makes participation for domestic T20 league mandatory for the players

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been taking some bold steps to refine their cricket. The board has held a very stern stance with respect to the match-fixing punishments and has been setting examples awarding those found guilty very harsh punishments which include financial penalties and bans. They have improved over the years in both aspects, the cricket and also with the off-field occurrences.

The participation of players in other cash-rich T20 leagues is another problem the board identified and has thus addressed it. PCB has 20 of their players playing in two major leagues across the cricketing world. Which makes them unavailable for the local teams and has a direct effect on the domestic competitions in the country. However, PCB has found a way around it and it is nothing but effective.

PCB makes domestic participation compulsory

The board will not issue No Objection Certificates (NOC) required for the participation in other leagues if the players don’t participate in domestic cricket. They have the National T20 Cup scheduled to be played in November. While there are two major T20 leagues one in Bangladesh, the BPL and South Africa’s T20 Global League that also kick off in the first week of November.

Around 20 Pakistan players, 12 in the BPL and 8 in the T20GL are set to participate in the leagues. However, PCB has made it compulsory for the players to be a part of the domestic T20 competition from 7th to 23rd November. Only their participation in the tournament will make them eligible for the NOC.

PCB released a statement regarding the matter, they mentioned that the international players should also participate in the tournament. The reason cited is the improvement of the domestic circuit. This rule is only applicable to PCB’s centrally contracted players.

The statement

“PCB has decided that all the centrally contracted players, who are not facing any other restrictions, must also participate in PCB’s T20 tournament to strengthen our domestic cricket, as per international best practices.

“In order to facilitate our players and also keeping in view a good relationship with Bangladesh and South Africa cricket boards, NOCs would be issued to all centrally contracted players to play BPL and Global T20 leagues, subject to the condition that they must play PCB’s T20 tournament,” the release stated.