Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has informed Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) over phone that they will not send any players to the BPL until the BCB announce a specific date for Pakistan tour, it has been learnt on.

The PCB will not issue the No Objection Certificate (NOC) to its players for their participation in the second edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) this year until and unless the Bangladesh Cricket Board fulfills their commitment to tour Pakistan, a source revealed to this scribe on condition of anonymity.

“PCB chief Zaka Ashraf has informed its counterpart over telephone that no Pakistan players will be given NOCs for the Bangladesh Premier League," the BCB spokesman reportedly confirmed in Dhaka on Monday.

“Deadlines have come and gone. This isn’t the first deadline that we have seen. We’ve also set deadlines in the past for the Bangladesh cricket team to tour Pakistan, which have come and gone,” the PCB chief reportedly said.

“I’ve responded to the BCB’s deadline and the matter is now in their hands. If there is no firm decision regarding a tour of Pakistan from the BCB, then the Pakistani cricketers will not take part in the BPL,” he said.

“In addition, all Pakistani cricketers know that they need an NOC from the cricket board to take part in the BPL and any player attempting to bypass that can land him in trouble with the PCB and the ICC,” Zaka added.The BCB chief reportedly said that there was no scope of sending Bangladesh team to Pakistan without any security assessment.

According to another report, the BCB has decided to wait till 10am today (Thursday) for the PCB to give NOCs, required to be issued by a player's home board to enable him to take part in overseas leagues. "We will wait till 10am and if the PCB doesn't reply, the tournament will go on as per schedule without the Pakistani players," BPL chairman Afzalur Rahman Sinha had said.

"We won't bow down to any demand and have decided to carry on. We have already informed that to the franchises and asked them to arrange similar-quality players to replace them."

"We have decided to kick off the BPL without Pakistani players," BCB President Nazmul Hassan said in a press briefing at the BCB headquarters at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

The seven franchises have been told to seek replacements from among the players who were unsold in the auction, or else find players from outside the list. With two days left before the tournament begins, it is unlikely that the franchises will be able to find enough players to replace the Pakistan cricketers, so popular in Bangladesh. Khulna Royal Bengals is the franchise most hit, as they had bought the services of Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Awais Zia, Umar Amin, Ahmed Shehzad, Harris Sohail and Bilawal Bhatti.

In April 2012, Bangladesh were supposed to be the first team to tour Pakistan since the attack to play a T20 and an ODI, but the trip was postponed following a High Court stay order.The second postponement of the tour had come on December 30 when the BCB decided not to send a team to Pakistan citing security concerns. The talks between the two boards reached a tipping point after the PCB continued to seek a confirmation from the BCB regarding a tour to Pakistan.

The BCB has played a waiting game after cancelling a trip for the second time on December 31. After BCB president Nazmul Hassan met his Pakistani counterpart Zaka Ashraf on January 6 in New Delhi, the BCB decided to send a second security team but that too has not gone down well in Pakistan.