New Delhi, May 04: All-rounder Abdul Razzaq has claimed that the snub to Pakistani players from IPL III was a premeditated move and the franchises were directed by the Government to not to sign any players from across the border.
He revealed that he had already signed up for the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2009 but later he was asked to put his name for the player auction.
He claimed that it was a move that was designed to keep him out of the IPL as none of the franchises made a bid for him and he could not find a single buyer for himself.
”I signed a contract with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in August 2009. So, I was already signed up to an IPL team before the 2010 IPL auction took place,” Razzaq said.
”I had already signed for Kolkata but they told me they wanted to add my name to the auction list. They said that I would be worth a lot more at auction than my current contract. So I signed a waiver on my Kolkata contract and they got what they wanted,” Razzaq revealed in an interview to cricistan.com.
He said the franchises were under the influence of the Government of India to refrain from bidding for the Pakistani players.
”It was a plan from the start; they didn’t allow any franchises to bid on Pakistani players. You can’t hide these things in the modern world.
”It’s an open secret that this was a political decision from the Indian government,” he added.
Razzaq said it was a shame that the sports was being dragged into politics because sport has the power to become a unifying force. ”Sport is one of those international bridges which can help foster good relations between nations. If you think back to the first India-Pakistan series in recent times (2004), it led to the thawing of relations between both sides at every level.” he said.
——-Agencies