Worried about their places in national team, Pakistan players contemplates leaving BBL for SL series

Karachi, Dec 20 (PTI) In an interesting development which underscores the insecurity in Pakistan cricket, players currently involved in Big Bash in Australia are willing to return home for a series in Sri Lanka, if the PCB wants them for national duty.

Senior players Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali and Haris Rauf who are playing the Big Bash are likely to be overlooked for the T20 series in Sri Lanka next month because of their Big Bash contracts.

Cricket Australia has already confirmed they have been assured by the Pakistan Cricket Board that all the players will be available for the entire duration of the Big Bash, which ends on January 24.

After a statement from CA chief executive Todd Greenburg, a source in the PCB said the players had reached out to the board, making it clear that they can return to play the series, to be held from January 5-12, if they are summoned.

"Because individually if they try to cancel or alter their contracts with teams in Big Bash to make themselves available for the Sri Lanka series they will lose out on money and might also face financial penalties," the source said.

He said at the same time given Pakistan cricket's culture of insecurity the players are clearly worried about the selectors being okay with trying out new phases for the series in Sri Lanka where Pakistan will play all its T20 World Cup matches in February and March.

"Add to the mix that with exception of Shadab the others including Babar and Shaheen, Rizwan have not had stellar debut outings in the Big Bash until now.

"So the players now don't want to risk being overlooked for the series in Sri Lanka and find themselves out in the cold with the selectors before the World Cup given Pakistan's volatile selection policies," the source said.

He said the players wanted the PCB to rescue them from possible breach of contract issues but whether the board intervenes remains to be seen, as CA signed on so many Pakistani players on they condition that they would fully honour their contracts. PTI AH AH AH