The Pakistan Cricket Board is under tremendous pressure to pick players with links to the unauthorised Indian Cricket League (ICL) according to director general of the PCB Javed Miandad.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India have banned the ICL, which rivals its own Twenty20 tournament the Indian Premier League.

Other countries including Pakistan have followed suit and banned players from playing in both international matches as well as domestic competition.

Recently, Sri Lanka partially lifted the ban, allowing players who participate in the ICL to play in domestic competition.

Pakistan, who have 18 players plying their trade in the ICL, are likely to follow suit.

"The PCB is under a lot of pressure from the public and the media to include players like Imran Nazir, Rana Naved and Imran Farhat in the team," Miandad told DNA Newspaper in Mumbai.

"If there is such talent, why not utilise it? As a cricketer, I would like to see these boys in the Pakistan squad.

"The BCCI is a very powerful body, but because of its bullying tactics, a lot of people are suffering.

"All the BCCI needs to do is join hands with ICL."

Former captain Imran Khan also criticised the PCB for toeing the BCCI line on the ICL issue.

"How can the PCB ban players when they themselves can not provide them with tournaments to play?" he said.

"If you isolate Pakistan from quality cricket then the standards are obviously going to go down."