Pakistan sports minister complains over IPL snub

Pakistan’s sports minister said Tuesday he had complained to his Indian counterpart after Pakistani cricketers were snubbed at an auction for the third edition of the Indian Premier League.

Eleven players from Pakistan, including flamboyant all-rounder Shahid Afridi, were up for grabs for franchises looking to fill out their teams for the lucrative league, to be held across India from March 12 to April 25.

But none of them were snapped up despite Pakistan being the reigning World Twenty20 champions. The snub comes amid simmering political tensions between historic rivals Pakistan and India.

“I have phoned the sports minister of India and recorded a protest over the unjust and discriminatory treatment meted out to the Pakistani cricketers,” sports minister Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani told AFP.

“It is indeed a matter of disrespect of Pakistani heroes, who are the champions of Twenty20 world cup,” he said.

“Pakistani ministries of sports, interior and foreign affairs had given political and security clearance to Pakistani players in time to play.”

Although IPL club owners declined to comment on why the Pakistanis were kept out, one franchise official said uncertainty over the Pakistani players’ visas and security fears could have been a factor.

Pakistani players said they felt humiliated. “We applied for the IPL only on their insistence and not on our own,” Afridi told AFP from Australia, where he is featuring in the domestic Twenty20 competition.

Afridi was one of 11 Pakistani players who featured in the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008. Pakistan’s Sohail Tanveer helped the Rajasthan Royals win that title and finished as the best bowler.

“We have been in demand and made a lot of friends in the first edition but this is disappointing that we were first asked to apply and then not included in the bidding,” said Tanveer.

Pakistani cricketers were denied permission by Islamabad to play in the second IPL edition last year due to growing political tensions with India after the November 2008 attacks on India’s financial hub Mumbai.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) did however clear the players to take part in this year’s IPL, but the delay in securing Indian visas created an obstacle, with approval only coming through at the last minute.

“As the champions of Twenty20, Pakistani players deserved to be in the IPL but the latest situation is disappointing,” PCB chief operating officer Wasim Bari told AFP.

Bari refused to comment on whether the IPL snub will further damage the relationship between the PCB and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which tends to mirror relations between rivals India and Pakistan.

KARACHI, AFP