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No Big Bash for Afridi, Ajmal and Umar Akmal, says PCB

Shahid Afridi was set to turn out for a new BBL franchise this season, in Sydney Thunder © Getty Images  Enlarge

The PCB has denied Umar Akmal, Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi permission to play this season's Big Bash League (BBL), the Australia Twenty20 league, to ensure the trio's participation in their domestic Twenty20 tournament ahead of the tour of India. Akmal had signed with Sydney Sixers and Ajmal with Adelaide Strikers for the season, while Afridi would have moved from Melbourne Renegades to Sydney Thunder.

The PCB had earlier issued the players No Objection Certificates to play in the BBL that begins on December 7. The PCB's national T20 championship is set to be played between December 2 and 10, and will be followed by a week-long conditioning camp before the team leaves for India on December 22.

Ajmal and Akmal, who signed with their respective BBL teams earlier this month, had not played in the league's inaugural edition. Afridi had moved to Thunder during the transfer window in July. In the last season, for Renegades, while he did not have much of an impact with the bat - he made 69 in four innings - he was their leading wicket-taker, with 10 scalps at 20.80 apiece.