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Mohammad Hafeez, who was the director of Pakistan team till recently, was the captain of the T-20 team during 2013-14. In the same year, when the IPL auction was held, Mohammad Hafeez became angry due to the absence of names of Pakistani players in it. Hafeez said in the press conference that Pakistani players are facing the brunt of not playing in the IPL because it is the best league in the world and we are out of it. This was not just the pain of Mohammad Hafeez, if you ask any Pakistani legend or listen to the media and people there, you will know how much Pakistani players die to play in IPL. But it was not always like this, when the first season of IPL took place, Pakistani players were included in it, but what happened was that the doors of IPL were always closed for Pakistan.
Mitchell Starc's expensive bid
When the Indian Premier League 2024 auction was held, the most expensive bid was made in the name of Mitchell Starc, which was around Rs 25 crore. Three teams of players are playing in PSL, a league like IPL started in Pakistan, with a budget of Rs 25 crore. This figure alone is enough to tell why Pakistani players want to play in IPL. The year was 2008. The first season of IPL was held and an auction was also conducted for it. This was the period when India-Pakistan relations were not very tense, so when it came to making IPL a global league, Pakistani players were also invited. Even then there was an uproar, because whenever the Pakistani team or its players came to India, there was always protest and uproar.
a dozen players
Overall, only about a dozen Pakistani players could play in the IPL in the first season. Shoaib Akhtar, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Tanvir, Mohammad Hafeez were all big names. You name it, he was playing in the IPL. A lot of money was showered on everyone and people also showered love. Shahid Afridi was then playing for Hyderabad, Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar were playing for Kolkata Knight Riders and Sohail Tanvir, Kamran Akmal were playing for Rajasthan Royals who later became the first champions of IPL. Pakistani players belonged to different teams.
average player
The first season of IPL was nothing special for Pakistani players, except one or two players, all the other Pakistani players appeared to be average players. The only thrill was that you could see Pakistani and Indian players playing together. 11 players from Pakistan have played for only 5 teams in IPL, Chennai Super Kings, Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians were the teams who did not buy any Pakistani due to different reasons. Sohail Tanvir, playing for Rajasthan Royals, showed his real talent. Sohail, who earned only Rs 50 lakh, became the first Purple Cap holder in IPL history i.e. the bowler taking the most wickets in a season. Sohail took 22 wickets. The most interesting thing about Sohail Tanvir was his strange action, at that time many people tried to copy that action but could not. I also remember that action because I have a friend Yash, his bowling action is exactly like that, so I can tell from my own experience how difficult it is.
tanveer smart bowler
In that season, Sohail Tanveer did wonders in the match against Chennai. Only 14 runs and 6 wickets, Chennai batsmen that day were not able to understand where Tanveer's ball was coming from and where it was going. This record of Sohail Tanvir remained the best record in IPL history for 11 years. The first season of IPL was a good experience for Pakistani players, there were no major problems but after a few months of IPL something happened which made it the first and last IPL for Pakistanis. In IPL 2008, when Pakistani players were bought in the auction. Was for 3 years. That is, except 2008, 2009 and 2010. But due to the attack, these players were out and all of them could play only one season. When the auction was held again after the first season, the names of Pakistani players were there, but no team bought them. Because Pakistani players played anywhere and for any team, no team took any risk. Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shahrukh Khan also expressed his feelings on this dilemma.