Karachi, January 26: Indian Premier League authorities should accept that they have treated the Pakistani players shabbily and insulted them in the January 19 auction, Pakistani Sports Minister Ijaz Hussain Jakhrani said.
Responding to Home Minister P Chidambaram’s remark that the Pakistani players were among the best in Twenty20 cricket and the behaviour of the franchisees in the Mumbai auction was a “disservice to cricket”, Jakhrani said he had been saying all along that there was something more to the whole issue.
“What the Indian home minister has said is nothing new for us. We have been saying this ourselves but I think it is time those involved in insulting our players should admit they didn’t act properly,” Jakhrani said.
Jakhrani said cricket had played a big role in easing differences between the two neighbours but the fact that none of the 11 Pakistani players found a team was difficult to digest.
–Agencies