Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan continued to sour after the Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday (June 2) barred its players and officials from participating in the Afghanistan T20 league. The decision comes a day after the Afghanistan Cricket Board cut ties with Pakistan following a bomb blast in Kabul on Wednesday that killed more than 80 people.
Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Babar Azam, Sohail Tanvir and Rumman Raees were all bought by the franchises in the auction but they will have to be replaced now with PCB refusing to hand NOCs to the players.
Last week, the two boards had a fruitful meeting in Lahore and had agreed to resume ties by playing two T20 friendly matches, with one of the games scheduled to be held in Kabul. But following the blast, the ACB came out with a strongly-worded statement in which it labelled Pakistan “a country where terrorists are housed and provided safe haven.”
PCB, as expected, was miffed with ACB’s reaction. “The informal understanding with ACB last weekend was strictly subject to conducive security conditions in Afghanistan and now stands cancelled because of continuing insecurity and instability there. It is also deeply regrettable that the ACB delegation in Pakistan was at pains to insist that politics should not impinge on cricket but has now turned around and is playing politics by laying the blame for its troubles and inadequacies on Pakistan,”