Wasim Akram in a Champions Trophy show© YouTube
The cricketing fraternity in Pakistan was left scratching its heads upon its failure to identify a single Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official on the presentation ceremony after the conclusion of the ICC Champions Trophy final between India and Australia. ICC chairman Jay Shah may very well be seen on the stage, handing the trophy to the winning captain Rohit Sharma and distributing medals to all players. But, not one of the PCB officials became a part of the proceedings on the stage at any cut-off date despite Pakistan being the official hosts for the tournament.
Because the ceremony concluded, there’s been plenty of concern in Pakistan over the style wherein all of it unfolded. Pakistan legend Wasim Akram admitted being flabbergasted over the absence of PCB officials from the ceremony.
Speak on the Dressing Room show live after the ultimate in Dubai, Akram highlighted that PCB COO Sumair Ahmed Syed was on the venue, instead of chairman Mohsin Naqvi as PCB’s representative, but he was nowhere to be seen throughout the ceremony.
“So far as I do know, Chairman Saab (PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi) wasn’t well however the those who got here from there (PCB) were Sumair Ahmad Syed (Chief Operating Officer of PCB) and Usman Wahla (Director of International for PCB) but nobody was there on the stage,” he said.
The incident has since snowballed right into a huge controversy, with many questions being asked from the International Cricket Council (ICC) over the incident.
“We were the host, weren’t we right? How come even the COO of PCB or whoever it might be who was representing Chairman Saab, why weren’t they on stage? Were they not invited? I do not know what’s the story. It definitely looked odd to me while sitting here. Pakistani, koi na koi stage par khada hona bahot jaruri tha. Chahe wo cup na de, chahe wo medal na de but any person should’ve been there. (It was imperative that one in every of the representatives from Pakistan must have had representation in any form, doesn’t matter if that person was giving the Cup, medals or not),” added Akram.
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