Taking a bold decision, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has refused to issue NOCs (No Objection Certificates) to three Pakistani players for the Global T20 League tournament. Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan have been shocked by this decision.
Pakistan cricket team’s limited-overs coach Gary Kirsten has accused the Pakistan team of lack of unity. After that, PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi discussed doing ‘surgery’ with the team. Also, new coaches Kirsten and Jason Gillespie (Test coach) were given full permission to make changes to the team. Now PCB has taken another drastic step. The board rejected the No Objection Certificate (NOC) request of Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan to play in the Global T20 League.
The board said in a statement, “The PCB had received requests for NOCs from Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi to play in the Global T20 League. The decision to reject their request has been made because of Pakistan’s busy cricket calendar from August 2024 to March 2025 and after consultation with the three players and the national selection committee.” During this period, Pakistan has nine matches to play in the ICC World Test Championship and next year’s ICC Champions Trophy.
Only time will tell what will be the effect of this decision of PCB. Pakistan’s players were unwilling to accept the terms of the NOC and therefore refused to sign the PCB’s Central Agreement before the 2023 ODI World Cup. Pakistani players wanted to be allowed to play T20 leagues around the world from time to time, but the PCB did not want this. However, after much argument, both sides agreed. Now that the PCB has cancelled the NOC, the players may also be angry.
The PCB said that it is in the best interest of Pakistan Cricket and its players to skip the upcoming league in Canada in accordance with the Board’s Workload Management Policy. So that they are at their best mentally and physically for the season. It will begin with a two-match Test series against Bangladesh. The board had denied permission to Naseem Shah for ‘The Hundred’ for the same reason.
But, PCB has granted NOC to Asif Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Nawaz. This might be because the workload these players are under is much less than the workload Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Rizwan are put under due to their 3-format playing capabilities.
