Karachi: In a surprising move, the organisers of the Indian Premier League have reportedly sought clearance of only five Pakistani players from the PCB to play in next year’s edition of the IPL.

According to sources, IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi had asked the Pakistan Cricket Board to provide NOCs for only Kamran Akmal, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Misbah-ul-Haq and new signing, Abdul Razzaq.

“That is what we have heard, that the IPL is not asking for a blanket clearance for all Pakistani players. They have specifically taken names of players they want clearances for the next IPL season,” the source told PTI.

While Razzaq has been recently signed by Kolkata Knight Riders, the other four have already appeared in the inaugural edition of the cash rich Twenty20 league.

Recently, it was believed that the foreign ministry has already given political clearance to the players and the sports ministry is now awaiting security clearance from the interior ministry.

Salman Ahmed of Portfolio international, the sports management company that represents the majority of the Pakistani players, said that they are making every effort to ensure that more Pakistani players get the opportunity to play in the IPL next year.

“It is not fair that the IPL is asking for NOCs for only a handful of players. We don’t know what the status about the other players is, and when they would be considered,” he said.

Salman, who is currently in New Zealand to discuss the IPL issue with the players, said the PCB should take a firm stand on the issue and make it clear to the IPL authorities that they can’t pick and choose which players from Pakistan can and can’t play in the IPL

He added that so far there was no inquiry for Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Salman Butt and Muhammad Hafeez, all of whom were part of the inaugural tournament in 2008. The deadline given by IPL for the submission of NOCs is  December 7 and Salman said that they were hoping some solution would be found out before this deadline.

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