Pakistan players blocked from playing in T10 League after PCB intervention

The governing body have revoked the No Objection Certificates for the competition set to be staged in Abu Dhabi in November 15-24

Pakistan players hoping to participate in next month's T10 League have been blocked from doing so by the PCB.

As many as 21 Pakistani nationals were in line to play following last week's draft for the third edition of the tournament, scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi between November 15-24.

But in a statement, the governing body have confirmed they have revoked the No Objections Certificates which allow players to compete in overseas leagues.

Though the ruling does not affect Shahid Afridi and Imran Nazir, who are both retired from Pakistan cricket, many others are now barred from competing.

"To manage the players' workload, continued work on their fitness levels as well as to ensure primacy and participation of its players in its premier Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, the PCB has revoked conditional NOCs of its players to feature in the T10 tournament," said the PCB.

"The decision has been made in the best interest of the players as well as to continue to enhance the credibility and reputation of the new domestic structure, which has been widely covered and reported across all media outlets."

The PCB do allow its active international and domestic players to play overseas, but pleas are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

While many of the eight sides are affected by the decision, much of Qalanders' squad is made up of players drawn from Pakistan.

Though only the major stars such as Mohammad Hafeez and Imad Wasim are expected to be absent, the team's chief-executive Sameen Rana is disappointed by the ruling.

"Our team will be badly hurt; there is no doubt about it, but a lot of guys are here from the Player Development Programme," he told ESPNcricinfo. "So we don't need NOCs for them.

"These are players that we have developed and groomed, and they are on our contracts. But it would have been good to get support from the PCB because this is a fundamentally Pakistani team. Qalandar is a Pakistani name."