LONDON, June 20 The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has pre-empted an initiative by its ex-chairman to invite former president Pervez Musharraf and prime minister Shaukat Aziz to the final of the World Twenty20.

Dr Nasim Ashraf, the former PCB chairman, had written to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to send an invitation to Mr Musharraf and Mr Aziz for Sunday's final.

But according to P. J. Mir, the television talk show host, the ECB has declined to invite the two, stating that Ejaz Butt, the current PCB chief, had advised it against doing so.

“The ECB is sending a written note to the Pakistan Cricket Board informing the board that it was purely on the intervention of Ejaz Butt that it has declined to invite Musharraf and Shaukat,” Mr Mir complained while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

When Dawn contacted Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's High Commissioner in the UK, he said he too had not received invitation for the final.

“It is only today that I learnt that an invitation is on its way.”

However, he did not have any comment on the issue of Mr Butt's opposition to inviting Musharraf and Shaukat.