PCB grants NOC to Rauf, Mir and Zaman to play Big Bash League

By Special Correspondent

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday granted Haris Rauf a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to play in the Big Bash League (BBL), marking a de-escalation in a stand-off with the fast bowler, after he opted out of the Test series against Australia. Zaman Khan and Usama Mir have also been granted NOCs to take part in the league, which begins from December 7. The trio can play in the league until December 28, however, a schedule the board said had been agreed bearing in mind “the workload of players and the future tours programme of the national men’s team.” That likely refers to their potential involvement in Pakistan’s T20I series with New Zealand after their tour of Australia, but those games don’t begin until January 12. At most, Rauf and Mir will end up playing five games for Melbourne Stars and Zaman four for Sydney Thunder. Olly Stone, the England fast bowler, has been training with the Stars and could be drafted into their squad as cover for Rauf at some stage. Stone plays county cricket for Nottinghamshire in the UK under Peter Moores, who is the Stars’ new head coach.

“The PCB understands that this decision is in the best interests of all the stakeholders involved while balancing the importance of game time with workload management,” the board said. The granting of the NOC to Rauf ends worries that his stint with the Stars would be delayed, after his decision to not play in the Australia Tests was publicly criticised by PCB officials. It has since emerged that the board has sent Rauf a show cause notice to explain his decision to pull out of selection for the Tests. The chief selector Wahab Riaz publicly criticised Rauf’s decision to not be available for the series at the end of last month. Wahab said Rauf had initially committed to the Test series only to pull out a day later, a version of events Rauf is believed to dispute. But it is a version of events that Mohammad Hafeez, the team director, also doubled down on in a press conference last week, before the team’s departure for Australia. The show cause notice is based on the alleged breach of clauses from the central contract which requires the cricketer to make themselves “available as and when required by the Board” and to “render professional cricketing services… diligently, faithfully and with utmost integrity”. That Rauf was in consideration for the Australia series was a surprise in the first place, given that he has mostly been seen and groomed as a white-ball specialist since his emergence through a Lahore Qalandars’ talent hunt in 2017. Rauf has only ever played 11 first-class matches and a single Test for Pakistan last winter against England, when Pakistan were also short of options. Rauf bowled 13 overs in the first innings of the Test in Rawalpindi and sustained a quad injury that ruled him out of the remaining series. He was not part of Pakistan’s squad to Sri Lanka for their last Test assignment, in July this year.