Hampshire boss says PCB chief Butt is rigid

Hampshire county lose all hopes of gettingu00a0Shahid Afridiu00a0to play for them this summer; club chief saysu00a0PCB boss Ijaz Butt is too rigid in his standu00a0Shahid Afridi will not be able to play for English county Hampshire this season, according to the club's chairman Rod Bransgrove. Speaking from England yesterday, Bransgrove said, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt is very rigid on its stand and unlikely to re-issue the No Objection Certificate (NOC) to Afridi. Therefore, I don't think Afridi has any chance to play for our county this season.In Trouble: Shahid AfridiWe were very eager to have him play for us and a lot of people here were excited when we hired him. Now, it is not only Afridi's loss, but we are losers too.u00a0 I tried my best to persuade Butt and also requested him to review the decision, but my talks yielded no positive results I don't know whether Afridi would sue the PCB, but we are not taking any action on him for not honouring the commitment. He did turn up for the match, but was stopped and therefore we are not thinking of suing Afridi. It is not his fault anyway, Bransgrove added.When approached for his comments in England, Afridi said, if the situation arises, I shall think of taking legal action. I am not thinking along those lines now. Meanwhile, Intikhab Alam, the 70-year-old manager of the Pakistan team is not disturbed on being labelled as a hypocrite by Afridi. Intikhab remained calm when approached for his comments in London. I don't want to say anything on Shahid's comments. I want to be loyal to my employers (Pakistan Cricket Board) and don't want to betray their trust by disclosing facts of the report, he added.