KARACHI: Miffed with the Indian Premier League's refusal to allow Pakistani players' participation for the second year in a row, Federal Minister for Sports Aftab Shah Jillani said the event's organisers have used "flimsy grounds" to "snub" his country's cricketers.
Jillani described the denial of permission to play in IPL III as an "insult" to Pakistan.
"If the IPL didn't want our players to take part in the tournament why did they bother to even ask the cricket board to furnish all government clearances for the players," Jillani said.
He said the sports ministry had worked overtime to get clearances from the foreign and interior ministries for the PCB.
"We did our part because we wanted our players to take part in the IPL this time.