PCB Puts Pakistan Players’ Nepal Premier League NOCs on Hold
The participation of several Pakistan cricketers in the Nepal Premier League is in doubt after reports that the PCB put their Nepal Premier League NOCs on hold.
ESPNcricinfo reported that multiple people involved in the NPL had confirmed that even players who had previously received NOCs from the PCB were told their permission to take part in the tournament had been put on hold.
The eight-team tournament is scheduled to run from 26 October to 21 November, with all matches set to take place in Kathmandu. The timing leaves little room for a resolution: the first ball is due within a day of the reports emerging.
Nepal Premier League NOC hold and the reported fee
According to people associated with the league, the PCB had also sought a fee in exchange for issuing NOCs, reportedly estimated at around US$25,000 per Pakistani player.
The report itself noted that it could not independently verify whether the PCB had formally communicated such a demand to the league in writing. It also remains unclear whether the reported fee is the main obstacle to the players’ participation, or whether some other concern sits behind the hold.
The PCB had not immediately responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
Several Pakistani players expected to feature in the competition have already arrived in Kathmandu, while others who were preparing to travel are understood to have postponed their plans pending a resolution.
Who is affected
Pakistan players expected to feature in the NPL include T20I captain Sahibzada Farhan, Haider Ali, Hunain Shah, Hussain Talat, Iftikhar Ahmed, Hasan Ali and Usama Mir.
None of the players is currently part of a Pakistan squad scheduled to be on international duty during the tournament window. That detail matters, because overseas league stints normally become contentious only when they clash with national duty.
Farhan, who leads Pakistan’s T20I side, has been a central figure in the team’s recent short-format plans, and Feature Pakistan has covered his approach in the T20I series against Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s limited-overs calendar continues at home, with England’s squad for the ODI tri-series already announced.
The Track D question
Earlier this year, the PCB announced a revised central-contract structure that distinguished between red-ball and white-ball cricket. The framework also introduced a category referred to as Track D, under which players were designated as T20 specialists.
In principle, the category was meant to give players greater flexibility to participate in overseas T20 leagues, provided their commitments did not conflict with international duties assigned by the PCB.
However, the board has yet to publicly clarify which category individual players fall into, or confirm whether the revised structure has been fully implemented. That gap is now at the centre of the NPL uncertainty: with none of the Pakistan players involved in the country’s Test or ODI plans during the tournament window, the hold on their NOCs has raised questions about how the revised contract framework will be applied in practice.
For players on the fringes of the national side, overseas franchise leagues are a major source of income and match practice. Pakistani stars regularly feature in such leagues, including Babar Azam’s stint with the Desert Vipers in the ILT20, and Farhan himself has been in strong recent form, including his 89 in the first T20I against Sri Lanka. A last-minute hold, with some players already in Kathmandu, leaves them in a difficult position through no fault of their own.
What to watch
Three questions will decide how this plays out. First, whether the PCB confirms or denies the reported US$25,000 fee demand. Second, whether the players already in Nepal are cleared to play when the tournament starts. Third, whether the board clarifies the status of its Track D category, which was presented as the route to exactly this kind of overseas stint.
