ISLAMABAD: Four Pakistani players have received clearance to get their visas to travel to neighboring India to feature in the lucrative Indian Premier League, the nation’s cricket chief said Thursday.
“Our High Commissioner in New Delhi has confirmed that four Pakistani players — Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Misbah-ul Haq and Kamran Akmal — have got clearance to get visas,” said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt.
However, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi said on Thursday that the players must go to auction on Jan. 19 because they had all subsequently been replaced on the rosters of their respective franchises and the original visa deadline of Dec. 7 had been missed.
Prospective players are put up for open auction of annual salary among the bidding franchises.
Bangalore Royal Challengers had secured South Africa’s Roelof van der Merwe in place of Misbah. South African fast bowler Charl Langeveldt has replaced Gul at Kolkata Knight Riders while Rajhastan Royals had bought in Johan Botha in place of Akmal and Tanvir.
Eleven Pakistani players — Gul, Kamran, Tanvir, Misbah, Younus Khan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Malik, Salman Butt and Mohammad Hafeez — featured in the first edition of the IPL in 2008.
Pakistani players were then denied permission by Islamabad to play in the second edition earlier this year due to growing political tensions with India after the November 2008 attacks on India’s financial hub Mumbai.
The PCB said last week that Islamabad had granted permission to the players to take part in the third season of the IPL, but the delay in securing Indian visas created an obstacle.
The IPL retained the contracts of Gul, Tanvir, Misbah and Kamran, while the contracts of seven other players were terminated.
All-rounder Abdul Razzaq, who featured in the rival unofficial Indian Cricket League in 2007 and 2008 before abandoning it this year, won a contract with Kolkata Knight Riders and can also get a visa clearance, officials said.
