Clear message to spot-fixing hit players from PCB

Pakistan Cricket Board has announced that Doha will be the venue for the first edition of the Pakistan Super League, scheduled to take place from February 4-24 2016.

Global Cricket Council (ICC) handed over the spot-fixing case to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) stating that completion of the rehabilitation program for Salman Butt & Muhammad Asif and reintegrating them in the worldwide Cricket scenario is now PCB’s responsibility.

Pakistan was in negotiations with the Qatar Olympic Committee and the Qatar Cricket Association (QCA) after efforts to hold the event in the UAE failed to materialise.

The auction, said Sethi, will be held in Pakistan and the logo of the PSL would be unveiled next month. “It is a unique blend of entertainment and cricket which will be the most exciting Pakistani product”, at a press conference at the Gaddafi Stadium.

Sethi also confirmed that the PCB will look at expanding the league further based on the reception that the tournament receives from the audience in Qatar as well as back home in Pakistan.

“All three players to have integration sessions with Bowling Coach Mushtaq Ahmed and Team Pakistan members in order to foster acceptability for probable future congenial environment in the dressing room in first class/international engagements”.

“People deserve a second chance and, as a human, I don’t want to give up on another human being”, said Akhtar, 40, who was in Dubai on Thursday to promote the Sprite Cricket Stars tournament, where teams of labourers are competing locally for Dh100,000 prize money.

“I can confirm that a number of parties are now talking to us and are interested in picking up the franchises”. The tournament will be formally launched in Lahore in late September.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur had tweeted last Saturday that there will be no revival of cricketing relations if Pakistan harbours Dawood Ibrahim and insists on a dialogue with Kashmiri separatist leaders.

Four West Indians and two players each from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand, England and South Africa were amongst the targeted names, Sethi said.