PCB recall 13 players from Caribbean Premier League and England county circuit

Sport360 staff 11:05 14/08/2017
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  • Sarfraz Ahmed 's and Mohammad Amir's County stints to be affected.

    The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has revoked the No-Objection Certificate (NOC) granted to 13 players currently plying their trade in England and the Caribbean Premier League and has asked them to return home to fulfil national commitments.

    The reason for revoking the certificates is that the visit of the ICC World XI has been pushed forward from the last week of September. The series has now been moved to mid-September subject to a security clearance.

    This means that Mohammad Amir, who has excelled for Essex in the County Division One, is expected to return to Pakistan cutting short his stint at England.

    It also throws a spanner into the works for Yorkshire and Somerset who had announced the signings of Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed and opener Fakhar Zaman respectively.

    Sarfraz had been contracted to play five games for Yorkshire in the Natwest T20 Blast while Zaman was to stay with Somerset till the end of the County season.

    The PCB has said that the rescheduling of the ICC World XI series has been done to avoid a clash with the by-elections in Lahore on September 17.

    This in turn has meant that the National Twenty20 Cup has been moved to the end of August to facilitate its completion before the visit of the World XI.

    “Owing to the late finalisation and rescheduling of the ICC World XI series to be played mid-September, the PCB has been obliged to schedule its National T20 Cup to start near the end of August and finish before the World XI series so that its national team can leave for UAE to play Sri Lanka starting September 24,” the PCB said in a statement.

    “This has compelled the PCB to call back centrally contracted players in contention for selection for the World XI series next month from their ongoing Caribbean Premier League and English county stints.”

    Sarfraz’s men are set to take on Sri Lanka in a full series in the United Arab Emirates next month.

    The PCB has asked the returning players to report to the National Cricket Academy for fitness and medical tests under head-coach Mickey Arthur’s supervision on August 22.

    Essex have been in discussion with the PCB regarding Amir’s return and are looking at Neil Wagner of New Zealand as a replacement for the left-armed pacer.

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