In all likelihood, the next edition of Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) will include a team from Pakistan.
At its working committee meeting held here on Saturday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to inform the tournament's governing council that it would have no objection to a Pakistani team taking part in the competition.
CLT20 features the top finishers of the domestic Twenty20 leagues of the major Test-playing nations.
No Pakistan team figured in the earlier three editions of the tournament that began in 2009.
Sialkot was invited to the inaugural edition, which was to have taken place in December 2008. But it was postponed after the Mumbai terror attacks in November that year. When the competition got under way in October 2009, no Pakistan team was part of it.
Interestingly, Sialkot Stallions is the winner of the Twenty20 league in Pakistan this year.
BCCI president N. Srinivasan said after the meeting: “The working committee has decided to invite a team from Pakistan to play in Champions League Twenty20 to be held in India in October. CLT20 is owned by the BCCI, Cricket Australia and Cricket South Africa. So we will recommend to the governing council that the BCCI has no objection, and is prepared to invite a Pakistan team…”
The governing council will meet on May 28.
Mr. Srinivasan said: “This matter came up at the governing council of the Champions League. There was a discussion on the composition of the tournament this year and on the number of teams and who will be invited. A feeling was expressed that a team from Pakistan could be invited.”
