The Pakistan Cricket Board is mulling over the possibility of allowing a team from Afghanistan to take part in its national T20 tournament in June in Faisalabad.
Published: May 31, 2011, 12:22 PM (IST)
Edited: May 31, 2011, 12:22 PM (IST)
Afghanistan batsman Muhammad Nabi plays a shot during the recently concluded Pakistan A vs Afghanistan ODI © AFP
Lahore: May 31, 2011
The Pakistan Cricket Board is mulling over the possibility of allowing a team from Afghanistan to take part in its national T20 tournament in June in Faisalabad.
According to board officials, the Afghanistan officials are keen on the idea of sending its Kabul region team that includes all the top players for the Pakistani T20 competition starting from June 24th.
“There is a lot of passion for cricket in Afghanistan despite its problems and even recently when their team played in a local T20 event in Karachi and than this series against the Pakistan “A” side one of their television channels broadcast all matches live,” one official said.
Sources said that the only issue confronting the PCB was that it would have to rearrange its draws for the T20 event and more importantly they would require to seek clearance from the foreign and interior ministries first to allow the Kabul team to take part in the event in Pakistan.
The PCB has in the past contemplated allowing foreign teams to take part in its national T20 event which draws huge crowds at the domestic level and is telecast live by Geo Super channel.
“If they allow the Kabul team in the National T20 event it would also mean extra revenues for the board and broadcasters as the television channels in Afghanistan are keen on securing broadcast rights for any event in which their team takes part in Pakistan,” one source said.
© PTI
