Sharjah T-10 league not cricket but circus: Shaharyar Khan

KARACHI: Pakistan Cricket Board’s former chairman Shaharyar Khan has said that 'the T10 league to be held in Sharjah is not cricket but a circus', adding that it would not be inappropriate to call it 'gilli danda', a local South Asian sport, instead. The PCB should not have supported the idea of having this league, he said. Shaharyar Khan said this on Geo Super’s programme during an interview on Tuesday.

The former chairman of PCB said that the PCB had issued NoCs to the cricketers for participating in the T-10 league for commercial benefits. “We should try to preserve the sanctity of the sport by resisting such commercial temptations,” he added.

Shaharyar Khan said: “Cricket is a gentleman’s game; and to play cricket in this way for monetary benefits only is preposterous. I also opposed T20 in my tenure as the chairperson of the PCB. The Pakistan Super League is a huge brand now and we have to take care of it. We have to take into consideration the apprehensions of the franchise owners.”

He said, “If Pakistan has supported the T-10 league, then it also has to allow its players to play in the UAE league; the players, in future, will also ask to participate in various such games.”

The former chairman of the PCB highlighted: “It is inappropriate to give importance to commercial reasons. In my tenure, T-10’s issue did not surface. I believe that Test cricket is the real form of cricket.”

“Whether they pay US$400,000 or a million dollars, T-10 is wrong in principle and we shouldn't have supported it. If we support T-10 today, then, in future, we will also have to release our players for a T-5 league. This decision is against the principles.”

He further said: “We pay a huge amount of money to the Emirates Cricket Board to play matches. Had the PCB disallowed players to participate in the T10 league, it wouldn’t have affected anyone at all.”

“However, I am surprised that the International Cricket Council is also quiet on this issue. This kind of league is demeaning the spirit of this game. We all must uphold the spirit of cricket.” In the end, the former chairperson of the PCB said that he was in favour of taking legal action in the case of Pak-India series. “However, when I met ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar in London during a meeting, he did not show any prejudice, which really surprised me,” he concluded.