A big contingent of Pakistani players leaves for New Delhi on Friday to take part in the second edition of the Indian Cricket League. They will play in the tournament as 'Lahore Badshahs'.
One of the contracted players disclosed that the 16 Pakistani players signed up by the ICL will appear in the tournament as Lahore Badshahs.
The tournament organisers have designed a special Salwar Kameez and waistcoat as the team's official outfit.
Moin Khan, the ICL representative in Pakistan, said there are plans to have designated city teams from Colombo and Dhaka in the tournament as well.
The Pakistan players include former captain Inzamam-ul Haq, Abdul Razzaq, Imran Farhat, Taufiq Umar, Azhar Mahmood, Shabbir Ahmed, Rana Naved, Mohammad Sami, Hasan Rana, Naved Latif, Shahid Nazir, Mushtaq Ahmed, Humayun Farhat, Imran Nazir and Arshad Khan.
The big exodus of players from Pakistan to the ICL comes despite some very stringent measures adopted by the Pakistan Cricket Board to discourage players from joining the league, which is not recognised by any of the member Boards of the International Cricket Council.
The measures include not considering ICL-signed up players for national selection, banning them from domestic competitions and also refusing to give NOC's to those wishing to join English counties this season.
Rana Naved, the former Pakistan pacer who is one of the affected players, has refused to back out of his ICL deal despite the PCB not clearing him to take up a contract with Yorkshire this season.
"I have made a commitment and I will honor it no matter what happens. The Board is today making things difficult for me by telling my county they have nothing to do with me and will not give me an NOC to play county cricket," he said.
"But I don't care, because, as it is, the board broke my spirit when no one bothered to find how I was doing when last year I was down with a shoulder injury and required medical assistance," he said.
Some other players also said they joined the ICL after being disillusioned with the PCB's policies and have no intention of backing out of their ICL deals.
Farhat said the players will file a petition in court against the ban on them and the reason for the delay is the political situation in the country.
"Our lawyer, S M Zafar, has also been very busy handling constitutional and other election-related petitions," he said.
PCB senior official Shafqat Naghmi said the Board's policies on the ICL remain unchanged and the players who had signed up for the league will have to live with the consequences until the matter is resolved.
