Pakistan cricket Board is likely to send senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf and their legal advisor to appear before an arbitration panel in Mumbai on January 24 to discuss a petition moved by the rebel Indian Cricket League against the batsman.
The Chairman of the board said on Friday that a representative of the board would certainly attend the arbitration hearing in Mumbai, but if possible Yousuf might also be sent to defend himself.
The arbitration panel headed by a retired judge has declared Yousuf ineligible to play for the official Indian Premier League of the Indian cricket Board as the ICL claims the batsman first signed a contract with them and also took an advance fee before going back on his contract and commitment.
It went to the arbitration panel to get a ruling but neither Yousuf nor the PCB representative attended the panel's initial hearing in which it gave a ruling against the batsman.
Ashraf said the arbitration panel had given its decision without hearing out Yousuf as such their ruling didn't hold much ground.
"As it is, an arbitration panel is not a court of law," he said.
But the PCB chief said Pakistan had filed a petition in the Lahore High Court asking that the ICL case against Yousuf could only be heard in Pakistan.
"We feel if there is a case against him it must be heard by a Pakistani court as he is a Pakistani player and if he signed any contract it was in Pakistan," Ashraf said.
But Ashraf in the same breath said the board was not on any confrontation path with the Pakistani players who had signed up for the ICL which is not recognised by the ICC or its member boards.
"Look we have nothing against these players. The first thing is we want any confrontation with them. But the bottom line is they signed to play for the ICL because they are getting good money by the ICL.
"They knew what they were doing when they signed their contracts. Our position is that the ICC does not recognize the ICL tournaments and we can't have different policies on it."
Ashraf said the day the ICC had no problems with the ICL the Pakistan board would also change its stance which had nothing to do with the Indian board.
He said the future of the ICL players would be discussed at a governing body meeting of the board on January 25.
Two of the ICL players, Imran Farhat and Taufiq Umar decided to go to court against the PCB decision to ban them from domestic cricket. But have decided to hold their petition till the governing body meeting although Ashraf claimed that the Lahore High Court had dismissed their petitions.
