Saeed Ajmal
and the Adelaide Strikers will be the chief beneficiaries of the PCB's
decision to allow their players limited participation in the BBL after
the Sydney Sixers terminated Umar Akmal's contract.
The Strikers had originally intended to call on Ajmal for only the first
game of the tournament and then regain him for the final stages, a plan
that remains possible. However the Sixers were unhappy to have Akmal's
original three-game stint cut to one and are now looking elsewhere.
Jamie Cox, the director of cricket for the South Australian association,
said Ajmal's re-confirmed availability was a relief after several days
of frantic phone-calls trying to keep Pakistan's No. 1 spinner in the
picture for the tournament.
"The arrangements work for us at the moment, they work for us better
than some of the other sides because we had originally intended for
Saeed to be here for the first game anyway," Cox said. "We're still
working on how that works for the latter end of the tournament, but for
them to reverse their decision we're very grateful.
"I know CA have been involved there, which has been great. To have him
in our team albeit how brief it turned out to be will be pretty
exciting. We're hoping we can free that up for the back-end of the
tournament where hopefully we're well and truly alive and challenging
for the trophy.
"Pakistan are at liberty to put out whatever program they like and we
understand that's how it works with international players, but we're
always keen to try and find whether there was an opportunity for him to
reconsider and fortunately in this case they have, and we're very
grateful. It'll hopefully work very well for us."
The PCB had earlier denied
permission for Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and Akmal to play in the Big Bash
League to ensure their participation in its own local tournament. But,
upon Cricket Australia's request, it reconsidered its stand and allowed
them to play the initial stages of the tournament. Due to the
scheduling, Akmal was found to be available for just the opening game of
Sixers' campaign.
"While it would have been great to have Umar here for the start of the
BBL season, the short time frame offered is not in the club's best
interest and we have decided to see if a suitable replacement is
available rather than continue down this path," Stuart Clark, the
Sixers' general manager, was quoted as saying by AAP. "We are confident our strong roster will be able to cover the loss of Umar should we not find a suitable replacement."
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