ISLAMABAD, Nov 21: The Pakistan Cricket Board must reconsider its blanket national ban on its players participating in the non-sanctioned Indian Cricket League, new PCB Director General Javed Miandad said on Friday.

“I feel that there is a public pressure on us because Pakistani players [competing in ICL] are performing well,” Miandad, a former Pakistan captain, said.

“Look at Sri Lanka they have already lifted the [domestic] ban on their players who are playing in the ICL.

“Gradually the pressure is rising because ultimately it’s the cricketers who are suffering.”

Currently players taking part in the ICL are banned from playing for Pakistan, because the Twenty20 league runs in competition to the officially sanctioned Indian Premier League. Other nations have done the same, as the ICL is not recognized by the International Cricket Council.

Ex-skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq leads the Lahore Badshahs team in the ICL, which is made up of Pakistani players and won the most recent competition.

Batsmen Imran Nazir, Imran Farhat, Mohammad Yousuf, all-rounders Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Abdul Razzaq and pacemen Shabbir Ahmed and Mohammad Sami are among the 19 Pakistani players, who are competing in the ICL.

Miandad said Pakistan and India feel the worst effect from the ICL ban.

“I am a firm believer that whosoever performs well, should be given a proper chance at the highest level of cricket [Tests and One-day Internationals],” he said.“But at the moment many talented cricketers are under suspension in both India and Pakistan despite performing brilliantly in the ICL.”

The new chairman of the PCB Ijaz Butt said last month that the ICC has already been warned by its lawyers of problems ahead if it is sued by the ICL.—AP