Controversy-hit T10L launches talent hunt
dubai — Shaji Ul Mulk, Chairman of the T10 League, put up a brave face on Thursday to convey that the show will go on even after controversial exit of their President Salman Iqbal and their title sponsors Heera Group are under the radar for alleged Ponzi schemes in India.
Salman Iqbal, founder and CEO of Pakistan-based ARY Digital Network, last Friday announced his resignation as the President of the T10 League, alleging ‘lack of transparency, unprofessionalism and no proper structure of the league’.
He alleged in his tweet that the league was heading in the wrong direction. “I believe it is better for me to part ways with an unsupervised T10 league.”
During a hurriedly called media briefing on Thursday to announce the appointment of Mohammad Azharuddin and Wasim Akram for a global talent hunt to ‘unearth the unsung heroes’ from the cricketing world, Shaji called Salman Iqbal’s statement ‘purely misunderstanding’ and hoped to resolve the issue. He refused to further answer any questions on the subject.
Shaji was a bit evasive when Pakistan-based journalist from an international agency asked him about reports in the Indian media on Indian government investigating T10 League title sponsors for Ponzi schemes.
“A lot of companies are being investigated but as far we are concerned there’s nothing illegal about our title sponsors,” he said.
On an unknown owner joining the league, he said: “There’s no unknown owner, it is all unfounded rumours.”
Talking about the new talent hunt programme launched by the league he said that the talent hunt would be carried out in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. “We will pick players who do not get the opportunity to play cricket and the exposure that they deserve.”
“This programme will help the talented players to get a job in the UAE and be able to display their cricketing skills at international level. The Emirates Cricket Board is part of this programme and the good top-class cricketers will have a chance to play for the UAE national team,” Shaji announced.
Cricket has gone to the second tier cities in Pakistan and there is a lot of talent to be unearthed and we plan to do that under this initiative
Wasim Akram
The difficult times that we went through, I won’t like today’s kids to go through, so these kinds of platforms amidst excellent facilities in the UAE will go a long way for talented kids
Mohammad Azharuddin
“Cricket has gone to the second tier cities in Pakistan and there is a lot of talent to be unearthed and we plan to do that under this initiative,” said the former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram.
“The difficult times that we went through, I won’t like today’s kids to go through, so these kinds of platforms amidst excellent facilities in the UAE will go a long way for talented kids,” said former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin.