Mohammad Hafeez. PC-PCB
Mohammad-Hafeez. PC-PCB

Mohammad Hafeez has expressed disappointment after spinner Usama Mir’s NOC for the T20 Blast in the UK was cancelled by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on May 29, 2024.

PCB did this by citing the clause in the central contract that Pakistani players will play only two T20 leagues including the Pakistan Super League. Usama Mir has signed a three-year central contract with the PCB.

According to the contract, all centrally contracted players are permitted to play two franchise T20 leagues in addition to the Pakistan Super League per season. Mir has already played in the Hundred and the Pakistan Super League in the current cycle.

According to the PCB, this means he will be ineligible to play in any future T20 tournaments during his current contractual cycle, which runs from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. Mir competed in the Hundred in August 2023, followed by the Big Bash League in 2023-24.

While he hadn’t signed his primary contract when he played the Hundred, it was retroactively set to begin at the beginning of July. The PCB took him out of the BBL after only five appearances after recalling him to the national team for a five-match T20I series against New Zealand.

Given Mir’s limited BBL involvement, it is understood that the player – and Worcestershire – believed he had a good chance of receiving an NOC for the Blast. However, the PCB maintains that “PSL +2” is a non-negotiable guideline, and Mir participated in two overseas franchise leagues during the current cycle.

Who is to blame now ??? – Mohammad Hafeez reacts to Usama Mir’s NOC getting canceled

Meanwhile, former Pakistan team director and coach Mohammad Hafeez has now questioned the Pakistan Cricket Board for canceling the NOC of Usama Mir for the T20 Blast, where he had signed with Worcestershire Rapids and was expected to be available throughout after he was omitted from Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad.

It was Hafeez first who stressed Pakistan players putting the country and its domestic cricket first before foreign T20 leagues. He had slammed Haris Rauf, who had refused to play Tests in Australia, but at the same time featured in the Big Bash League last year.

This led to a showdown between him and players like Shaheen Afridi, Azam Khan, and Shadab Khan, who had applied for NOCs for BPL 2024 but were denied as they had already been granted permission to play in the ILT20 league.

Mohammad Hafeez recalled the same issue and asked who’s to blame now when Mir was refused a NOC despite not being named in Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad.

“Five months ago under my 2 months directorship with pakistan team all pakistan sports media & paid social media trends criticised me on many non committed sins like NOC policy. Who is to blame now ??? It’s a mutual agreement between players & PCB on central contract,” he posted on X.

Also Read: T20 World Cup 2024: ‘ICC Have Made Schedule For Two India-Pakistan Games’ – Basit Ali