ISLAMABAD // The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has banned Mohammad Yousuf from the national team after the veteran batsman rejoined the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League.
Yousuf was cut from the 15-man squad for three limited-overs internationals against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi from Nov 12-16. He will be replaced by batsman Khalid Latif.
"He is banned with immediate effect to play in or for Pakistan," the PCB Director of Cricket Operations Zakir Khan said. "We have also terminated his central contract."
Yousuf travelled to New Delhi on Monday, hours after the team for the West Indies series was announced, without informing the PCB officials or team management.
ICL officials said that the 34-year-old batsman had signed for the Lahore-based Badshahs in the rebel Twenty20 league.
The PCB has banned all players contracted to the ICL from its national or domestic competitions. Other high-profile players include the ex-Test captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, the all-rounders Azhar Mahmood and Abdul Razzaq and the opening batsman Imran Farhat.
"Like all the other cricket (national) boards we have a firm policy toward ICL," Khan added. "We have tried to stop all our players to compete in the controversial Indian Cricket League."
Yousuf signed for the ICL last year, but the PCB convinced him not to play in the competition so that he could continue playing for the national team. That prompted legal action from the ICL for breach of contract.
He later tried to join the Indian Premier League, the Board of Control for Cricket in India-backed Twenty20 league that is sanctioned by the International Cricket Council, but that move was blocked by the ICL.
The distinctively bearded top-order batsman has played 79 Test matches and 269 limited-overs internationals for Pakistan.
Until converting from Christianity to Islam in 2005, he was known as Yousuf Youhana. He has scored 6,770 runs at an average of 55.50 in Test cricket and 9,242 runs at an average of 43 in one-day internationals.
*AP
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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THE DRAFT
The final phase of player recruitment for the T10 League has taken place, with UAE and Indian players being drafted to each of the eight teams.
Bengal Tigers
UAE players: Chirag Suri, Mohammed Usman
Indian: Zaheer Khan
Karachians
UAE players: Ahmed Raza, Ghulam Shabber
Indian: Pravin Tambe
Kerala Kings
UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Abdul Shakoor
Indian: RS Sodhi
Maratha Arabians
UAE players: Zahoor Khan, Amir Hayat
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UAE players: Imran Haider, Rahul Bhatia
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UAE players: Hafiz Kaleem, Sheer Walli
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UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Sandy Singh
Indian: Praveen Kumar
Rajputs
UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed
Indian: Munaf Patel
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
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Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
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Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
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The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
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