Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz, Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz, and Umar Akmal have been signed by Canadian GT20 franchises, but the players haven’t yet received a no-objection certificate from Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) which makes their inclusion doubtful not just in this league but also in the European T20 league.

Apart from Afridi who announced his retirement from international cricket in 2017, all other players require No Objection Certificate’s from PCB as, except for Akmal, all others are contracted with the board. However, NOC’s has already been granted to some players to play in English T20 Blast, starting this week.

"Babar Azam is playing for Somerset, Muhammad Aamir for Essex, Fakhar Zaman for Glamorgan, Faheem Ashraf for Northamptonshire while Imad Wasim has also applied to play for a county," the official told PTI.

The GT20 league is scheduled to start later this month and end mid-august, while the Vitality Blast is scheduled to start late in August and end in September end.

When asked about PCB’s rule on giving NOC’s for foreign T20 leagues, PCB official said the policy is likely to be reviewed later this month as World Cup has just been concluded.

(With Inputs from PTI)