Foreign players interested in Pakistan Premier League: Ashraf

Karachi: The Pakistan Cricket Board has received positive response from several international players for its proposed Twenty20 Premier League, said chairman Zaka Ashraf.

"The positive thing is that we have already held discussions with some international players and they have shown willingness to come and play in our league. The only thing they want is good money and financial guarantee for coming to Pakistan," Ashraf said. Ashraf said the PCB tried to convince some of the Boards to play a limited-over series in Pakistan for the revival of international cricket in the strife-torn nation. "But it appears that the boards will not take the initiative and we will have to first hold the Premier League and get international players to change the perception of playing in Pakistan," he said. He said the financial aspect of the league is most important for the board as it would have to pay good money to get the international stars. "We are working on the proposed league with interested sponsors but so far we have offered no franchises for sale to anyone." Meanwhile, speaking on the issue of the PCB deciding against boycotting the ICC awards ceremony to protest the omission of Saeed Ajmal from the shortlist of nominees, Ashraf said, "We have not given up pursuing our point of view that we feel the process for shortlisting candidates for the awards could have some flaws and needs to be reviewed and we will take this up at the next ICC meeting." "We decided to go for a partial boycott of the awards ceremony because we also have to keep in mind that we are working with the ICC in trying to convince other boards to resume playing international cricket in Pakistan," he said. PTI