The Pakistan Cricket Board has confirmed that a star studded Lahore Lions led by Muhammad Hafeez will represent Pakistan in the forthcoming Champions League Twenty20 tournament to be held in September.
"The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has formally invited us and Lahore Lions by virtue of being the national T20 champions will represent us in the Champions League," chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmad told PTI today.
Although the BCCI has avoided allowing Pakistani players in the Indian Premier League for a few years now, it has invited the domestic T20 champions from Pakistan since 2012 for the CLT20.
Sialkot Stallions and Faisalabad Wolves played in the last two Champions League but failed to progress beyond the qualification stage.
"It is a positive development because the Champions League is a major event and we want Pakistan to have representation in it," Ahmad said.
He said the invitation was a part of the process to resume bilateral cricket ties with India next year.
"It augurs well for the future of the six bilateral series agreement we have inked with the BCCI," he added.
The Lahore Lions team, unlike the Sialkot and Faisalabad, includes number of current and discarded Pakistan national cricket team members, including Umar and Kamran Akmal, pacers Wahab Riaz and Aizaz Cheema, openers Nasir Jamshed, Ahmed Shahzad, while the team is led by Hafeez, who stepped down as the national Twenty20 captain after the World T20 in Bangladesh two months back.
The Lahore outfit beat Faisalabad Wolves led by Misbah-ul-Haq on February 16 in Rawalpindi by three wickets to become the national T20 champions.
The PCB official when asked about chances of Pakistani players also being invited for the IPL next year, said the issue had not been discussed with the BCCI officials as yet.
"For us the main priority is having bilateral series. The IPL is about sending individual players," he added.
Ahmad also said that the PCB would as per usual practice send its own manager with the Lahore Lions team, which would be allowed to have its coaching staff.
