Hafeez disallowed from bowling in PSL

DUBAI: Mohammad Hafeez will not be allowed to bowl in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), after the league decided to follow the International Cricket Council (ICC) standards on playing conditions.

Even though the PSL is a domestic tournament, Hafeez, who is currently serving a 12-month bowling ban, cannot apply for a reassessment of his action until his suspension ends.

According to the ICC policy, any player who is banned from bowling in internationals is allowed to bowl in domestic competitions, provided he has the consent of his home board, and remains under observation. Though Hafeez continued to bowl regularly in domestic cricket after his ban, the PSL has decided to stick with the ICC’s ruling.

“The rules we are following are from the highest standard and we decided to stick with the ICC’s ruling against any player,” the PSL management told ESPNcricinfo. “We understand that Mohammad Hafeez is presently banned and we will endorse the ICC’s decision and carry it in the league.

“On the draft day before the players were picked, we were intimated that Hafeez was named as a batsman only as his bowling action was banned by the ICC. We are sticking with that. The team who picked him agreed before hand they were taking him only as a batsman. The rules were already cleared before the final pick and it was mutually agreed.”

Hafeez’s bowling action was reported during the final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy between SNGPL and United Bank Limited in Karachi, with several of his deliveries suspected to be beyond the 15-degree limit.

The case was instantly sent to the PCB’s illegal technical committee headed by Ali Zia. According the PCB policy, Hafeez then had to undergo remedial work on his action to convince the committee that he could be allowed to bowl in the tournament again.

Hafeez was initially drafted in the Platinum category of the PSL draft, but was later demoted to the Diamond category after no team picked him in the top bracket. He was eventually taken by Peshawar Zalmi for $70,000. Zalmi confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that they had picked Hafeez purely as a batsman.