New Delhi, Apr 3: The chairman of Indian Premier League (IPL), Lalit Modi on Thursday told reporters that Pakistan’s speedster Shoaib Akhtar would not be allowed to play in the league if the five year ban on him remained.

Taking a strong stance on using players who were not affiliated by their respective board to play for the national team, Modi said that even they would not like to have their banned players to play for other countries’ leagues.

Taking a strong stance on using players who were not affiliated by their respective boards to play for the national team, Modi said that even they would not like to have their banned players to play for other countries’ leagues.

Expressing hope that Akhtar’s appeal against the ban would turn out positive results for him, Modi said, “Till the time he is cleared by PCB to play for the national team, he would not be allowed to play in IPL.”

He further said, “We are concerned with a ban for such a long duration, we respect the decisions of the boards of other countries and so the governing council has decided not to allow him to play.”

Reports suggested that Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Niranjan Shah and a few other members of the IPL governing council were against the idea of playing a banned player in the cash rich IPL.

Earlier, Shoaib Akhtar had been cleared by PCB to play for IPL’s star studded team, Kolkata Knight Riders alongside Sourav Ganguly and Ricky Ponting. Shoaib sais in an interview that the team owner and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan had even sent him advance money so that he could focus on giving his best for the team.

He had been purchased by Shah Rukh’s team for a large sum of Rs 1.82 crore, meanwhile Kolkata Knight Riders spokesperson has said that even though Akhtar was a big crowd puller, the team would abide by the IPL governing council’s decision.