Former captain turns down Afghanistan Premier League offer after the board refuses NOCs to national players; more than 30 Pakistanis who entered the draft went unpicked amid strained ties with Kabul.
LAHORE: Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has turned down an offer to mentor a team in the Afghanistan Premier League (APL), choosing to stand with the Pakistan Cricket Board after it refused to clear Pakistani players for the tournament, according to sources cited by Geo News.
Akram, one of the game’s greatest fast bowlers, was approached for a mentorship role but decided against accepting it in line with the board’s position, the sources said. Neither Akram nor the PCB has commented publicly.
PCB’s NOC wall
The PCB decided earlier not to issue no-objection certificates (NOCs) to national cricketers seeking to play in the APL, reports said. Without an NOC, players contracted to or registered with the board cannot take part in overseas leagues.
More than 30 Pakistani cricketers had registered for the league’s draft, including Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Hasan Ali, Shan Masood, Abdullah Shafique, Faheem Ashraf and Imad Wasim, according to reports. None was selected, amid uncertainty over their availability because of diplomatic tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Azhar Mahmood and Waqar Younis accept APL offers
Akram’s decision contrasts with other former Pakistan stars. Former all-rounder Azhar Mahmood has taken a coaching role with the APL team Paktia, and former captain Waqar Younis has become a team ambassador, Geo News reported. As retired players without central contracts, they are not bound by the NOC rules that apply to active cricketers.
The league could still prove attractive to Afghanistan’s star-studded player pool and to overseas players, but the absence of Pakistani talent, long a staple of regional franchise cricket, will be noticed.
A cricket rivalry shaped by politics
Pakistan and Afghanistan share deep cricketing ties that many of Afghanistan’s early players learned the game in refugee camps in Pakistan, and the two sides have produced some of the most heated contests in Asian cricket. Relations between the governments have deteriorated, with Islamabad citing attacks it has linked to networks operating from Afghanistan and sending back more than 2.8 million Afghans since 2023.
Akram, a Pakistan Super League mentor and commentator with a large following across the region, has generally avoided public comment on politics. By declining the offer quietly, he aligns himself with the board at a time when cricket has become another arena for the strain between the two neighbours.
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