Pakistani players will return – Lalit Modi

Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi has said he is sure about Pakistan players returning back in the future editions. Modi also pointed out that they still can play in IPL this year in case of any teams looking for replacements for their injured or unavailable players. Outrage by Pakistan senior officials and players have resulted in Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt and the country’s sports minister Aijaz Hussain Jahkrani saying that they will boycott the champions league this year and IPL 2011.

“We will discuss this with the Pakistan board officials when we meet them and I am sure the Pakistani players will return,” Modi told a leading Indian English news channel. “Some teams have still not finished their quota of players and some players can still drop out. In that case, franchises can choose Pakistani players as replacements.”

Modi also denied reports of mishandling and stressed that the decisions were purely of the franchises. “I don’t think that there’s any mishandling, the franchisees decide on their own. We never said in the first place that the government in any which way nudged up in that direction so it was a decision that was taken by the franchisees and let’s leave it at that. There was no pre-decision. They were all worried about the availability and that’s why the Australians weren’t picked up along with many other players and all that we keep hearing now is one story – about not bidding for Pakistani cricketers.”

Meanwhile, Jahkrani has demanded an inquiry from the Indian government as to why no Pakistani players were bided for. “We want the government of India to intervene in this issue and let us know who was responsible in keeping Pakistan cricketers away from the IPL. From day one our stance is that the IPL decision was an influenced one.”