The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wasim Khan has hit back at Mohammad Hafeez after the veteran cricketer raised question against the board’s decision to allow corruption-tainted cricketer Sharjeel Khan to make a return to professional cricket.
Taking to his official Twitter handle, Hafeez had written, “Shouldn’t we set Standards of Dignity & Pride Higher than any other ‘Extra Talent’ to represent Pakistan.”
Shouldn’t we set Standards of Dignity & Pride Higher than any other “Extra Talent” to represent Pakistan 🇵🇰 Just Asking https://t.co/9xxIvcAqM8
— Mohammad Hafeez (@MHafeez22) March 20, 2020
Replying to the 39-year-old, the PCB CEO advised Hafeez to not use social media to criticise the board’s decision and asked him to focus on his own cricket. Wasim further mentioned that he will personally take up the matter to Hafeez.
“Current players should not be going up on social media to criticise other players or talk about what policies the cricket board should or shouldn’t have,” Wasim was quoted as saying by IANS via ESONCricinfo.
“They can have their opinions about various things about world cricket and cricket in general but not about the rights and wrongs of players and the boards and they should leave that to the cricket board to answer.
“I will be personally speaking to Mohammad Hafeez about that and I don’t think it’s his place to be doing it. No other player in the world does that so why should our Pakistani players do that? I don’t think they have any space to do that and I don’t think they should be doing that. That’s my personal view.
“Coming from an English environment, I never saw an English player tweet about policies, procedures, talking about other players’ rights or wrongs. My view is, he should focus on his own game, focus on the cricketing opinion he can give but not personal opinion about other players,” Wasim added.
Sharjeel, who has represented Pakistan in 25 ODIs, 15 T20Is and a solitary Test, was handed a five-year ban by the PCB for his role in the corruption scandal of the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2017.
Later, his sentence was reduced by the governing body and he made his return to competitive cricket in this year’s PSL with Karachi Kings.