Shahryar Khan opposes T10 League scheme

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board's former chairman Shahryar Khan has opposed PCB's decision of picking up on the T10 League, while remarking the scheme a 'circus'.

The former chairman said that PCB shouldn't have compromised on the sanctity of cricket for commercial temptation.

He was talking in the Geo Super program 'Bolain Kia Baat Hai' on Monday.

"My personal opinion is that this is a circus and not good for cricket. It will demean the game of cricket," Shahryar said while agreeing to the observation that the T10 League may also damage Pakistan's own product, the Pakistan Super League.

"Not good to give importance to commercial factors at the cost of cricket. They pay US$400,000 or a million dollars, T10 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 US$400,000 for giving NOCs to its contracted players for the tournament which starts in Sharjah on December 14.

The former PCB head also opposed that it is wrong to say that disallowing players would have affected our terms with ECB because they earn so much from PCB.

In another statement, he also criticised the ICC for not doing enough for protection of cricket's purity.

While suggesting protection for the sanctity and purity of cricket, he pointed out towards the responsibility suggesting that the board shouldn't agree with every commercial temptation, as he stressed that commercialism has already damaged the essence of the game too much.

"I believe that this will surely damage the PSL franchises. PCB must not have ignored their apprehension. PSL should be our priority," he stated.