"I am a professional cricketer and I have a three-year contract with ICL," Yousuf said. "How could I leave ICL when they don't object whenever I was required to fulfill Pakistan's international commitments?"

The Pakistan Cricket Board has imposed a ban on players appearing in the ICL _ a Twenty20 league which is a direct competitor to the officially recognized Indian Premier League _ barring them from both domestic and international cricket.

However, Yousuf is one of the 11 Pakistani ICL players who were allowed to compete in domestic first-class cricket after a court in Karachi repealed the domestic ban.

"Being a professional cricketer we do get offers to play cricket abroad, and if I was offered to play in ICL what crime have I committed?" Yousuf said.

Yousuf said that it's up to the PCB to press the sport's governing body ICC to lift international bans on Pakistan's ICL players.

"If the board (PCB) thinks that its team is getting weak and it needed ICL players for international matches, they should talk to the ICC," said Yousuf, who is still banned from Pakistan's national team until he leaves the ICL. "I want to play cricket for Pakistan because it has given me name and fame, but unfortunately today it looks to me that I've been thrown out of the team. To me, the people of Pakistan are the best judges and I leave my case to them."

Yousuf said that with his current fitness he believed he could play all forms of the game _ test matches, one-day internationals and Twenty20 _ for another three years.

"Nobody could predict about the future, but I believe I could play for another three years and serve my country," he said.

The 34-year-old Yousuf has played 79 test matches and scored 6,770 runs with an impressive average of 55.49 with 23 centuries. In 269 one-day internationals, Yousuf made 9,242 runs at an average of 43.18 with 15 centuries and 62 half centuries.