KARACHI: The Pakistan Cricket Board has refused permission to its embattled pacer Mohammad Asif to sign a short-time contract with English county Sussex as it does not want to risk players burnouts.
According to details, Sussex had recently offered Asif a short term contract to play for the county.
"Sussex wanted him for two four-day and three one-day games but the Board didn't give permission for obvious reasons, one of them being that he has just recovered from a major injury and secondly because of the national team commitments," one source said.
The Board had also refused to release pacer Sohail Tanvir to play for Hampshire.
A PCB official, when contacted, said their policy on allowing players to play in county cricket was clear.
"We don't encourage our pace bowlers to go and play in foreign leagues for long periods. We have been facing a lot of fitness issues with our bowlers in recent times.
"That is the reason we didn't allow Tanvir, Umar Gul and Rao Iftikhar to accept county contracts even short term ones."
Asif is training in the National Cricket Academy these days to prepare for the Champions Trophy although the three-member fact-finding committee is yet to start its proceedings on his 19-day ordeal in Dubai.
A member of the committee said the delay was due to non-availability of official report of the Dubai authorities.
"We don't want to start proceedings unless we have the report stating clearly what substance was found from Asif's possession by the airport authorities," Shafqat Naghmi, PCB Chief Operating officer said.
"If we give a decision without looking at the report, we will be accused of saving him. So we just want to make sure we have the report in our hands before we do anything," he added.
Asif was detained for 19-days in Dubai last month for alleged possession of a banned substance while returning from India.
The selectors have included him and Shoaib Akhtar in the preliminary squad for the Champions Trophy.
Naghmi said having Asif in the shortlist of 35 players was not a big issue as even if the committee felt he had done something wrong in Dubai he can be dropped from the list.
