Pakistan Players to Miss 3rd Edition of IPL: Modi

ISLAMABAD : Four players have received clearance to get their visas to travel to neighbouring India to feature in the lucrative Indian Premier League, the nation’s cricket chief said Thursday.

“Our High Commissioner in New Delhi has confirmed that four Pakistani players — Umar Gul, Sohail Tanvir, Misbah-ul Haq and Kamran Akmal — have got clearance to get visas,” said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt.

Watch Live Cricket

But IPL official Lalit Modi had announced that players from across the border would miss the third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2010) because they did not get their visas before a deadline.

Butt said he would talk to Modi to try and get him to reconsider.

“I hope they will consider this latest development,” Butt told AFP.

Modi had ruled out Pakistani players’ participation in the league after the Monday deadline for completing all formalities including obtaining visas for the March 12 to April 25 event elapsed.

Eleven Pakistani players — Gul, Kamran, Tanvir, Misbah, Younus Khan, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Malik, Salman Butt and Mohammad Hafeez — featured in the first edition of the IPL in 2008.

Watch Live Cricket

The PCB said last week that Islamabad had granted permission to the players to take part in the third season of the IPL, but the delay in securing Indian visas created an obstacle.