February 15, 2008	Friday	Safar 07, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 14: The authorities in the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL) have allowed its contracted players to attend to national duty on a two week’s notice but the move has failed to appease the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

Sources told Dawn late Wednesday that the ICL has made an amendment to clause 3.4 in the contract being offered to the new players. The clause earlier demanded from the players that they make the league a priority instead of putting their countries first.

The PCB media director Dr Ahsan Hameed Malik, when contacted, said he was not aware of any such amendment made by the ICL. “But even if there is such a thing, it is not enough to change PCB’s stand over the issue.

“We will not stop those who want to join the ICL but we will remain strict. The ICL, besides assuring the players that they make playing for their country a priority, must also include a clause that any player who wants to join it must produce an NOC from the PCB,” the director said.

When asked why the PCB had taken a strict stance on ICL when other cricket boards had imposed no such bans on their players for playing at the domestic level, Ahsan Malik said that the PCB did not impose a ban on any player but had merely asked all its affiliated units not to select them in their teams for any first-class competition.