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Published 17 Sep, 2008 12:00am

Mohammad Yousuf to rejoin ICL?

KARACHI, Sept 16: After months of legal wrangle with the ICL, Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf may finally end up joining the rebel Twenty20 series, thus ending his international career.

Sources close to the batsman have confirmed that Yousuf has conveyed to the ICL organisers that he is willing to consider joining them if they drop compensation claims and other charges against him.

The ICL took legal recourse after Yousuf first joined them in 2007 and then backed out of the contract under pressure from the PCB who assured him of a more lucrative IPL deal.

But the ICL obtained a stay order, restraining Yousuf from playing in any other rival Twenty20 league including the IPL.

Yousuf is set to file his reply to the ICL charges in the Mumbai high court on Tuesday where he has appealed against the stay order.

Tafazzul Rizvi, the PCB legal counsel, who is supporting Yousuf in his legal battle said the reply would be submitted by an Indian lawyer, hired to push the appeal in the Mumbai high court.

But the sources said that due to the inordinate delay in the legal battle and the failure of the PCB to get him a clear passage to play in the IPL, Yousuf was becoming frustrated.

“With the ICL having a strong case against him, Inzamam-ul-Haq has also advised him to make an out of court settlement and rejoin the ICL,” one source said.

He said Inzamam was willing to talk to the ICL on behalf of Yousuf and may try to broker a deal but he wanted to be sure Yousuf did not face any legal problems from the PCB or the IPL.

Rizvi, however, said he was not aware of Yousuf making a U-turn. “As far as I know he is very keen on winning his appeal in the high court and he is also confident of success as we have made it clear that the arbitrator was biased in our client’s case,” said the PCB counsel.—Agencies

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