It has been reported that some of the Pakistani cricketers have decided to sue the IPL for breaking their contracts and disallowing them from participating in the second season of the Indian Premier League. Earlier, the Pakistani government had disallowed the Pakistanis from featuring in the tournament in India due to the simmering political tensions between the two countries after the Indian government had asked the BCCI to cancel the tour of Pakistan.
However, with the IPL being shifted to South Africa, the cricketers from Pakistan had harbored hopes of making a comeback, but with the squads having being already announced, the Pakistanis were not included in the side.
The five cricketers who are thinking on the lines of a legal recourse are Younis Khan (Rajasthan Royals), Shoaib Akhtar, Salman Butt (Kolkata Knight Riders), Shahid Afridi (Deccan Chargers) and Shoaib Malik (Delhi Daredevils). It remains to be seen how this one pans out in the near future, and whether the Pakistanis can make their voices heard in the IPL.
My take on the issue: My only take on this issue is that the aforesaid five Pakistani cricketers are aiming for the stars if they think that they have a case here. For starters, the decision to prevent the cricketers from traveling to India was taken by the government and any tournament rules cannot be changed on the whims and fancies of five cricketers.
What worries me is that this act may end up jeopardizing their chances in the next edition of the IPL too; something that the likes of Shoaib Akhtar could very well do without. None of these five seemed too indispensable to any of the teams in the first season, and with the kind of talent on show, the last thing that the franchises would prefer is have a contract with a cricketer who has a pending or a former court case against the team!
Clearly, the five have almost committed an IPL-suicide, and may need a miracle to get out of this problem.