LAHORE, Oct 9: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is to allow foreign players into its domestic tournaments from this season in a bid to lift the standard of competition for local players.

Shafiq Ahmed, who heads the PCB domestic cricket committee, said the board had introduced a clause for the first time which allows teams to sign foreign players.

“We have allowed this for the first time. But we have to wait and see what response we get. We have to see if our teams can manage to hire any foreign players,” Shafiq stated.

Shafiq added that the board was hopeful of some foreigners appearing in the Twenty20 Cup, which will be held early next year.

The PCB announced a busy domestic programme last week which starts from Oct 20 and runs into March 2008.

“The idea is to encourage the teams not only to depend on board grants but also arrange for sponsorship and try to hire foreign players. We have increased the prize money for events as well,” he said.

Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 tournament launched two years ago has been a roaring success and the board has made it more or less mandatory for all its top players to appear in the competition.The board has earmarked around 80 million rupees (US$1.4 million) in its fiscal year budget for domestic cricket support.

Shafiq said the PCB wanted to encourage the concept of franchising of the regional teams to support them financially.—Reuters