Lahore: PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf has said Pakistan`s plans to launch the country`s own international T20 premier league have been shelved to next year.
Ashraf told reporters in Multan that although lot of planning had already gone into the proposed premier league event but it would not be possible to hold it this year.
"I think realistically speaking we should be able to launch it sometime in March next year and we will be inviting overseas players to participate in the event and make it successful," he said.
The PCB has been working on launching its premier league in the footsteps of the Indian Premier League, Bangladesh Premier League and Sri Lankan Premier League for the last few months and recently also advertised the position of league commissioner.
Pakistan is the only country in the South asian region still without an international flavored T20 league although it is among the pioneering nations that started organizing domestic T20 tournaments successfully.
Ashraf also admitted that while succeeding in getting the Indian cricket board to restore bilateral cricket ties between the two nations was a big achievement of the PCB but the absence of any international cricket in Pakistan remained a painful challenge for the board.
"The restoration of Indo-Pak bilateral ties is a
achievement for the PCB and we have confirmed to them we will be touring India in December," he added.
"But at the same time the board has not given up on managing to restore international cricket in the country."
Ashraf said that it was a painful fact that terrorism remained a big stumbling block in the cricket grounds of Pakistan hosting international teams once again.
"But we have not given up and we see the restoration of bilateral ties with India as one big step towards eventually convincing international teams to tour Pakistan. Once we go to India we hope India will also tour Pakistan soon," Ashraf added.
No Test playing nation has visited Pakistan since early 2009 when militants attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore, killing six Pakistani policemen and a van driver and wounding several of the visiting players.
The PCB chief also said that the performance of the national under-19 team in the World Cup was disappointing and an inquiry would be held to find out where things had gone wrong which led to Pakistan finishing at eighth position in the competition.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 21:07