With the issue of the participation of Pakistani players at the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League at a boiling point and the matter of the Bangladesh cricket team’s tour of Pakistan still to be finalised, PakPassion.net spoke with Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Zaka Ashraf regarding the deadline set by the Bangladesh Cricket Board of 10am Wednesday for the PCB to give its No Objection Certificates (NOC) to Pakistan cricketers participating in this year's Bangladesh Premier League.

By Saj Sadiq (16th January 2012)

With the issue of the participation of Pakistani players at the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League at a boiling point and the matter of the Bangladesh cricket team’s tour of Pakistan still to be finalised, PakPassion.net spoke with Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Zaka Ashraf regarding the deadline set by the Bangladesh Cricket Board of 10am Wednesday for the PCB to give its No Objection Certificates (NOC) to Pakistan cricketers participating in this year's Bangladesh Premier League.

Ashraf stated “Deadlines have come and gone. This isn’t the first deadline that we have seen. We’ve also set deadlines in the past for the Bangladesh cricket team to tour Pakistan which have come and gone. The BCB asked us to release our players for the Bangladesh Premier League for continued good relations between the two Boards. We were ready to, but the good relations and support has to be mutual. I’ve responded to the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s communication regarding the deadline and reminded them that the PCB supported the Bangladesh Cricket Board concerning the matter of the ICC vice presidency during a time when the PCB could have taken on that role themselves and at a time when there was no support for the BCB to take up the role at the ICC. I requested my colleagues at the ICC to give Mustafa Kamal an opportunity to take up the role of vice president, when he had little support.”

Ashraf continued “I have also in my response to the BCB reminded them that after receiving support from myself regarding the role of ICC vice president, all we’ve heard from the BCB is that the Bangladesh cricket team will be coming to Pakistan on this date, then another date and so on. After obtaining support from the PCB, when the time came to return that support to the PCB, they’ve ditched us. This is purely and simply a derailment of the Future Tours Programme.”

“I recently met BCB President Nazmul Hassan in India and said to him that he should honor previous pledges and send his team to Pakistan. He said that he would resolve the issue in a few days when he went back to Bangladesh he stated that his team would tour Pakistan, but once again we are back to square one with no definite decision from the BCB” stated Ashraf.

Nazmul Hassan recently stated that before the BCB agrees to a tour of Pakistan, he thought it was time to send a second security team to Pakistan as a lot of time has passed from the last inspection [in March last year], but Ashraf is against the idea and said that another security team from Bangladesh was not necessary and illogical.

“I’ve told the Bangladesh Cricket Board that we don't need another security delegation on behalf of the BCB to visit Pakistan. The previous security delegation came from Bangladesh along with Mustafa Kamal and we gave them security briefings and technical demonstrations. The Punjab government, the Sindh government, the federal government all contributed to the briefings and demonstrations and the report that the BCB’s security delegation gave was a very positive one. They stated that they were satisfied with the security arrangements in Pakistan and cleared the tour. I don’t find any logic in the need to send another security delegation from Bangladesh to Pakistan.”

Ashraf finally added that “I’ve responded to the BCB’s deadline and the matter is now in their hands. If there is no firm decision regarding a tour of Pakistan from the BCB, then the Pakistani cricketers will not take part in the BPL. In addition, all Pakistani cricketers know that they need a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Pakistan Cricket Board to play at the Bangladesh Premier League and any players attempting to bypass that could land themselves in trouble with the PCB and the ICC.”

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