PCB reportedly seeks $25,000 a player for Nepal league NOCs

The Pakistan Cricket Board has reportedly sought about $25,000 per player to issue no-objection certificates for the Nepal Premier League, leaving the participation of several Pakistani cricketers uncertain as the eight-team tournament opens in Kathmandu.

According to ESPNcricinfo, cited by ProPakistani, people associated with the league said players who had already been granted NOCs were later told their permission had been suspended. That report said it could not independently verify whether the board had put the $25,000 demand in writing. The PCB has not publicly commented on the figure.

The tournament is scheduled to run from October 26 to November 21. Sahibzada Farhan, Haider Ali, Hunain Shah, Hussain Talat, Iftikhar Ahmed, Hasan Ali and Usama Mir are among the Pakistan players expected to feature. Some have already reached Nepal, while others have held back their travel until the matter is resolved.

Farhan's case carries a separate complication. The PCB confirmed on Monday that Saim Ayub had been released from the ODI squad for the ongoing tri-nation series against England and Sri Lanka after asking to return to domestic cricket to work on his batting and regain confidence. Farhan, who had already arrived in Kathmandu, was named as Ayub's replacement and is expected to return to Pakistan for international duty.

The NOC dispute has also drawn attention to the central contract structure the board announced earlier this year, which separated red-ball and white-ball arrangements and introduced a Track D category for T20 specialists. That category was presented as giving players more room to take overseas franchise deals when there was no clash with national commitments. The PCB has not said publicly which players sit in which category, or whether the system is fully in operation.

Apart from Farhan, the Pakistani players linked to the NPL are not part of the national side's Test or ODI plans during the tournament window, according to the report. The league, featuring eight teams, begins while the question of who may play in it remains unanswered by the board.