The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan has stated that the board’s franchise-based T20 League will be staged in the UAE and not Pakistan due to a lack of financial support and a reluctance of top players to travel to Pakistan.

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Pakistan ended their cricketing exile on home soil after hosting Zimbabwe in Lahore last month but, having been without international cricket for six years, more still needs to be done for top sides and their stars to play in Pakistan.

Since the armed attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009, the PCB have been playing ‘home’ series’ in the UAE.

The safe completion of the Zimbabwe series had raised hopes that international cricket would soon make a regular return to Pakistan but the inaugural edition of the high profile T20 league would have suffered in the sub-continent country had it been played there.

“We’re going ahead with the T20 league project in UAE because of the financial reasons and gains from it as top players of the world will not come to play in Pakistan,” Shaharyar said.

“The experts we’ve engaged for the product has told us that it is important to host it in UAE to attract the best players because that would ultimately increase the hype and quality of the competition from brands point of view. The best players would attract top sponsors and broadcasters.”

Shaharyar added that the board were not interested in going ahead with the project in Pakistan with the participation of second and third grade players as it was important for those cricketers to share the same dressing room as the world’s best players and coaches.

The board had planned to host the event in February 2016 but the dates collide with the recently launched Masters Cricket League (MCL) which will also take place in the UAE and will feature the likes of Wasim Akram, Adam Gilchrist, Brian Lara and Jacques Kallis.

MCL organizers have already booked out stadiums and the PCB is now trying to work alongside the legends tournament to find an amicable solution.

The PCB has asked the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) to move the Masters League dates in favour of their own tournament, but considering the support the MCL has already garnered, its very public promotion and the fact it has booked grounds, the ECB would be unlikely to be able to step in, even if they wanted to.