The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is set to have a collision course with some of the biggest names in the national team after denying an ‘No Objection Certificate’ to Naseem Shah for the upcoming edition of the Hundreds, England’s 100-ball premier league tournament.
It has been understood that the board is set to reject NOCs of many all-format players for the upcoming franchise tournaments. Even though the ICC has yet to sanction the Global T20 league in Canada officially, the Pakistani board is not going to allow Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Rizwan, and captain Babar Azam to play there, citing the workload management.
That means ‘The Hundred’s’ Birmingham Phoenix is not going to get the services of the Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah, who is always expected to be hitting the popularity of the competition. Neither of these two events clash with the international season of the national side, but looking at the busy schedule of the team, the decision is believed to be made.
Pakistan plans to bring development in the long home season
The Pakistan Cricket Board wishes to see their players resting during the off-time, and healing their injuries, as they gear up for a long season at home, including the upcoming edition of the Champions Trophy 2025, set to take place in February.
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They are going to face Bangladesh next in a two-match Test series. The players expected to be available for the leagues before joining the Test side, as the left-arm pacer Afridi was scheduled to travel to Canada, with the event set to begin on July 25. Naseem Shah was set to get a £125,000 cheque for ‘The Hundred’, which will begin on July 23.
These refusals, however, are only for the all-format players, as the likes of Haris Rauf, and Usama Mir, who was denied his NOC last month for the T20 Blast, will fly to England to take part in the 100-ball league.
The green brigade is going to play non-stop cricket from October to May in the following year. They are going to host England for three Tests in that month, which will be followed by a limited-overs series in Australia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
They will also feature in a Test series in the Rainbow nation, before hosting the West Indies for a Test series, and later take part in a tri-series featuring South Africa and New Zealand, as a preparation for the Champions Trophy, and then there will be the Pakistan Super League (PSL).
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The three-year central contract was signed by the PCB and the players stated that they would be allowed for two overseas leagues per year, only if those events didn’t clash with the international commitments. Even though the contract does state that the Pakistan board has all the rights to refuse NOCs to the players, it’s understood that the decision could cause discontent among the players who are going to be affected by that.
The past few months haven’t been easy for the country, as they had a group-stage exit in the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, which has resulted in many tough decisions among the side. The decision whether they would stay with their current captain Babar Azam in the future is yet to be made.