After West Indies and Pakistan boards agreed to postpone a T20 series, PCB has now changed its stance, allowing players to compete in the South African T20 League.
It is worth noting that most of the teams in the league are owned by Indians. Earlier, PCB refused to issue NOCs to players citing domestic commitments, but the series postponement seems to have changed the narrative. The now-postponed series vs West Indies will be played in 2024. It was earlier scheduled to be held in January 2023.
"Centrally contracted and non-contracted players can now make themselves available for the SA league and also other leagues being held during this time frame excepting the Emirates league," an official source told PTI.
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The source added that PCB changed its mind after the SA Board announced that the teams were allowed to sign an extra wildcard player after the auctions. Two Pakistani youngsters, Azam Khan and Muhammad Hasnain were approached by a franchise not owned by Indians in the ECL, but the board refused to give them NOCs as it has made it a policy that none of its players will play in the ECL.
The BCCI, on the other hand, remain firm in its stand about not allowing players to play in any of the global leagues around the world.
As far as the T20 World Cup is concerned, Pakistan will face Bangladesh in their last match of the Super 12 stage. Their fate is out of their hands though. They now rely on the Netherlands to beat South Africa and would then hope to beat the Bangla Tigers themselves.
This has been a World Cup of upsets and anything can happen. Nothing can be ruled out. In their last game vs South Africa though, Pakistan turned on their A-Game and won the match by 33 runs.
