ISLAMABAD: A former South African player accused the Indian cricket board of “trying to prevent” him from participating the Kashmir Premier League (KPL), saying he was forced to stay away from the tournament through pressure tactics.
Herschelle Gibbs slammed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for threatening him, saying in a Twitter post it was “completely unnecessary of the @BCCI to bring their political agenda with Pakistan into the equation and trying to prevent me [from] playing in the @kpl_20.”
The South African batsman claimed the Indian cricket board had tried to stop him by threatening to ban his entry into its country and depriving him of “any cricket related work.”
Kashmir has remained a bone of contention between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan since their independence from the British colonial rule in August 1947.
The region has witnessed full-scale wars and low-intensity conflicts between the two countries that claim it in full but rule only in part.
The T20 league was launched by the Pakistani authorities last December as the first major cricket contest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir whose President Masood Khan was appointed its chief patron.
Gibbs’s accusation was retweeted by Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson who condemned “India’s politicization of Cricket” while saying: “Depriving young Kashmiri players of the opportunity to share dressing room with big names in [cricket] is unfortunate and regrettable.”
