Daily Times

LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board’s former chairman Shaharyar Khan has termed the Ten10 league a ‘circus’, saying the PCB should not have supported the idea of having this league. Speaking on TV, the former chairman added that the PCB shouldn’t have compromised on the sanctity of cricket for commercial temptation. “My personal opinion is that this is a circus and not good for cricket. It will demean the game of cricket,” Shaharyar said. “Not good to give importance to commercial factors at the cost of cricket. They pay $400,000 or a million dollars, Ten10 is wrong in principle and we shouldn’t have supported it,” he added. The Pakistan Cricket Board in a recent statement agreed that it charged a fee of $400,000 for giving NOC to its contracted players for the tournament which starts in Sharjah on December 14. The former PCB head also added that it is wrong to say that disallowing players would have affected our terms with the England Cricket Board (ECB) because they earn so much from the PCB. Shahryar also criticised the International Cricket Council (ICC) for not doing enough for protection of cricket’s purity.

“How long you will allow cricket to be degraded? You need to protect the sanctity and purity of cricket. This is our responsibility because commercialism has already damaged the essence of the game too much. You shouldn’t agree with every commercial temptation,” he said. He also agreed with the observation that the T-10 league can also damage Pakistan’s own product, the Pakistan Super League. “I believe that this will surely damage the PSL franchises. PCB must not have ignored their apprehension. PSL should be our priority,” he stated.

Published in Daily Times, December 14^th 2017.