Rana Naved has surprisingly received clearance from the Pakistan Cricket Board to play in England, despite his links with the rebel Indian Cricket League and worldwide opposition to the unsanctioned Twenty20 tournament.

The England and Wales Cricket Board have said anyone taking part in an unofficial competition will be banned from county cricket after the major Test-playing nations agreed not to issue No Objection Certificates to ICL players that would enable them to perform in England.

But the PCB have broken ranks by issuing an NOC to Rana Naved and also to Sussex leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed, which means the ECB could be forced to rethink their stance.

Yorkshire's chief executive Stewart Regan said the club expected an ECB decision within days. "We have submitted an application to the ECB for Rana to be registered and are waiting to hear back from them," he said.

"The ECB previously told us Rana wouldn't be granted an NOC and, on that basis, couldn't be registered.

"We gave Rana an ultimatum that if he took part in the ICL he would be banned from county cricket, but now the Pakistan cricket authorities have back-tracked and Rana has faxed us his NOC.

"We've submitted a registration to see whether the ECB are prepared to support it. What we're not going to do is put ourselves in a position where we could be challenged legally for breach of contract because Rana signed a contract with us in good faith.

"Therefore we're trying to register him in good faith and get clearance, but, at the moment, it's sat with the ECB.

"If the ECB turn the registration down, the player could take the matter up with the ECB if he was unhappy with that decision, but it's too early to say whether there would be any challenge from the club's point of view.

"There could be other complications in playing an ICL player; for example, the possibility that the club might be prevented from playing in the Twenty20 Champions' League if we were to qualify, which was one of the threats bandied around earlier this year.

"There are so many things to consider and so many things going on, so we just have to wait to hear back from the ECB."

No one was yesterday available for comment from the ECB, who last week turned down registrations for five ICL players – Wavell Hinds, Johannes van der Wath, Andrew Hall, Hamish Marshall and Justin Kemp.

Yorkshire beat Somerset by 53 runs in a pre-season friendly in Abu Dhabi yesterday. Andrew Gale (63) and Anthony McGrath (53) top-scored in Yorkshire's 264-7 after captain Darren Gough won the toss, Somerset replying with 211.