ISLAMABAD: Pakistan cricket fans and commentators on Tuesday accused the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) of mixing politics with sports by omitting legendary former captain Imran Khan from a video that highlighted the historic achievements of the national squad since its inception in 1952.
Khan, considered one of the greatest cricket captains of all time and recognized as one of Pakistan’s most potent fast bowlers, led the green shirts to their only 50-over World Cup triumph in 1992. From the late ‘70s to the 1992, Khan played 88 Test matches in which he took 362 wickets and played 175 One Day International matches from which he took 182 wickets. He is also widely credited with mentoring Pakistani cricket superstars Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Moin Khan, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Aaqib Javed, Mushtaq Ahmed, Ramiz Raja, and Abdul Qadir, among others.
Despite his contributions to cricket, the PCB did not feature Khan in a video the board shared on the occasion of Pakistan’s 77th Independence Day on Monday. Spotlighting Pakistan cricket team’s greatest achievements since the 1950s, the video contained a short segment on Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup victory. Pakistani cricket commentators and fans were quick to notice that Khan, who was instrumental in leading the green shirts to the victory in the tournament, was missing from the video.
The cricketer-turned-politician is currently serving a three-year imprisonment sentence on graft charges, with political tensions on the rise in the South Asian country. The current PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf is widely considered to be a confidant of former president and Khan’s political rival, Asif Ali Zardari.
That made fans certain Khan’s omission from the video was by design.
Former Pakistan cricketer and commentator Urooj Mumtaz Khan pointed out how there were 11 images of the 1992 World Cup triumph in the video yet none featured Khan.
“Imran Khan will go down in history as one of the greats of the global game,” she wrote on X platform, formerly known as Twitter.
Pakistani sports journalist Hadeel Obaid said the video was “terrible” for excluding the former prime minister from it.
“Takes some special effort to get roasted on your own account by your own fans, on Independence day, celebrating your own greatest cricketing achievements,” sports journalist Danyal Rasool wrote sarcastically.
Pakistani singer Haroon Shahid also took aim at the PCB for not including Khan in the video.
“Next time PCB tells BCCI to leave politics out of cricket, the BCCI won’t need much to shut them up,” he wrote. “This video will be enough!“
Sports journalist Arfa Feroz Zake criticized the PCB, saying that it had resorted to a “hypocritical act” by omitting Khan from the video.
“PCB claims to be a big advocate of not mixing sports with politics and then doesn’t bother to include the only ICC World Cup winning captain of Pakistan,” he wrote.