“Why are they [PCB] ruining the future of Pakistan cricket?” Yousuf, 34, asked reporters at a hurriedly-called news conference here after he returned from India as a victorious member of the Lahore Badshahs squad that outclassed Hyderabad Heroes in the best-of-three finals at the ICL.
“There are players in the ICL like Imran Farhat, Imran Nazir and Mohammad Sami, who can still play for Pakistan.”
Aside from suspending him, Yousuf is in dispute with the PCB over money as it is demanding he return Rs10 million ($124,000) it spent on the batsman’s legal case in India involving his contract negotiations with rival Twenty20 leagues.
“What I fail to understand is that the PCB is not worried about the future of Pakistan cricket and its players, it is only worried about the money,” Yousuf said.
The PCB suspends all Pakistan players who play in the ICL. Abdul Razzaq, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Taufiq Umar and Hasan Raza are the other Pakistan cricketers who have been banned by the PCB for joining the rebel league.
Yousuf, a veteran of 79 Tests and 269 One-day Internationals, rejoined the ICL earlier this month, prompting the PCB to suspend him. He signed for the ICL last year, but the PCB convinced him not to play in the rebel Twenty20 competition so that he could continue playing for the national team.
“The previous [cricket] board misguided me by saying that I could not play for Pakistan if I joined the ICL,” Yousuf stated.
He later tried to join the officially sanctioned Indian Premier League (IPL), a Twenty20 competition which is supported by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), but the ICL blocked the move by filing a breach of contract case in an Indian court. “The previous board also told me that it would look after all the court cases,” Yousuf said.
Yousuf, scorer of 6,770 runs in Test matches and 9,242 runs in ODIs, lashed out at Malik and PCB Director Operations Zakir Khan, complaining of their high-handed attitude towards him.
“The attitude of Malik and [that of] Zakir towards me was bad and this forced me to join the ICL,” he stated.
Yousuf further said that Malik lied when he said that he showed no disrespect to any senior player.
“I was surprised to hear that he [Malik] claims that he has never been disrespectful towards me or any senior players. That’s a news to me. I believe that a captain should take senior players along but he [Malik] never did that,” asserted Yousuf.
“I have nothing personal against him [Malik], but in the Pakistan team the senior players are not given due respect,” he said. “I was never consulted in any cricketing matter while on the other hand look at [Indian captain Mahendra Singh] Dhoni, how well he takes along all the senior and junior players.
“Who is Zakir to impose a ban on me? I am ready to serve the country as and when required,” the classical right-handed batsman expressed. “Playing for Pakistan will always be my first preference. I believe that the PCB should lift the ban on ICL players because not even the ICC has banned the league.”
Yousuf added that he did not join the ICL for the lust for money, saying: “I could make a lot more money playing for Pakistan than the ICL.”
But the lack of respect, he emphasised, from the Pakistan officials compelled him to make the move.
“I played for Pakistan for almost ten years and always gave my best. But still I was treated shabbily by the former officials of the PCB and the captain,” he asserted.
He claimed that non-issuance of Canadian visa [to him] for quadrangular Twenty20 tournament in Toronto last month was a conspiracy of Shafqat Naghmi, PCB’s previous chief operating officer. “Why did the PCB regime apply for residential visa?” he questioned.
Yousuf insisted that he could still play all the three forms of the game — Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 — for another two to three years.
“I am among the top in both Test and ODI rankings so how can someone say I am not fit for Twenty20,” said Yousuf.
Yousuf is currently ranked third in the ICC Test rankings behind West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara. In 50-overs-a-side cricket, Yousuf is ranked eighth.—Agencies