Butt asks Yousuf to settle issues with board

Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, has appealed to Mohammad Yousuf to stop going public over his future as a Pakistan player and instead sort out the issue privately with the board. Yousuf, among the 17 ICL cricketers banned by the PCB from playing for the country, recently suggested the board settle the vexed issue of the bans with the ICC and was also very critical of the PCB for not standing up to the BCCI.

"I don't know why he is running around," Butt said. "He should just come and talk to me about the issues he has with the ban imposed on him from playing for Pakistan.

"The ICC has made it clear it would leave home boards to deal with legal issues according to the laws of their countries."

Yousuf represented the Lahore Badshahs in the last ICL tournament in November 2008. The Sind High Court had lifted the bans on the ICL cricketers, allowing them to play domestic cricket. However, they are still ineligible for representing Pakistan.

Yousuf, however, has refused to break his three-year contract with the rebel league. He even met sports minister Aftab Shah Jilani on Wednesday and Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari - also the patron of the PCB - to resolve the ICL issue. A meeting between the ICL, ICC and BCCI has been arranged on February 21 in Johannesburg.