Published: Jan 29, 2019, 02:55 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 29, 2019, 02:46 PM (IST)
While Pakistan managed to break South Africa’s winning run in the Pink ODIs and levelled the five-match ODI series 2-2, former Pakistani pacer Sarfraz Nawaz criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for appointing Shoaib Malik as the team’s captain in place of Sarfraz Ahmed, who is serving four-match suspension following his racist remarks against the South African bowler Andile Phehlukwayo during the second ODI of the series. (ALSO READ: Sarfraz Ahmed gets four-match suspension over Andile Phehlukwayo comments)
The stump mic picked up Safraz saying, in Urdu: “Abbe kaale, teri ammi aaj kahaan baithi hain? Kya parwa ke aaye hai aaj? (Hey black guy, where is your mother sitting today? What [prayer] have you got her to say for you today?)” (ALSO READ: PCB disappointed at ICC’s decision to impose four-match ban on Sarfraz Ahmed)
While Sarfraz apologized for his remarks, the International Cricket Council (ICC) banned the Pakistani skipper for four matches. (ALSO READ: 5th ODI: Heated series set for decider at Newlands)
Nawaz highlighted the fact that Malik, in the past, was asked to quit the captaincy amidst the suspicions of fixing matches.
“Malik had to quit the captaincy of Karachi Kings in the Pakistan Super League when an English cricketer raised doubts over his certain decisions during a match,” Nawaz told Dawn. (ALSO READ: Got to know that I will be captaining when we got to the ground: Shoaib Malik)
“On another occasion, Malik while leading Sialkot Stallions, lost a domestic T20 match deliberately and also admitted it in the post-match talk,” he added.
Nawaz stated that the then PCB chairman Ijaz Butt removed Malik from the team following these comments.
Nawaz also critical of PCB’s decision to call Sarfraz Ahmed to Pakistan when he could have played the final T20I match in South Africa.
“This would give wrong signals to the team and the players about his (Sarfraz’s) future in the team,” concluded Nawaz.
