Fakhar Zaman, batter for the Pakistan cricket team, has finally opened up on the uproar created by his social media post spicing between Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam. After the former Pakistan captain was unceremoniously dropped during the home Test series against England, Fakhar came to the rescue of Babar, even mentioning Kohli as part of the social media post. However, the PCB was irked and ended up taking Fakhar’s name off the central contracts list. This came from an interview with PAK TV during which he stated he wasn’t criticising the PCB but was merely voicing his own opinion.
“I thought about it later and felt that I should not have tweeted. But people got the tweet completely wrong. They thought that I was criticising the decision of the board, but this is 100 per cent wrong. If you see the timing of the tweet, it was done before the board made its decision. I saw in the news for 2-3 days that journalists and former players were criticising him (Babar Azam). And I thought to myself, Babar has done so much for the team, but they still wanted him to be dropped,” Fakhar said in the interview.
“I saw that and tweeted my opinion out. But I understand that no one is bigger than the board. I will even tell my junior cricketers that however big you become, you are not bigger than the board and you should not be criticising them during your playing days. But ya, my clarification is that I made my tweet before the team was announced,” he further added.
That said, in a statement made by PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi, while Fakhar was subsequently dropped from the central contracts, “this situation is not merely on account of Fakhar’s ‘social media posting’.” He further explained that this has more to do with what he actually achieved recently on the field and even went so far as to explain fitness as one of the main reasons that led to such an edict.
“The matter of tweet is one thing, but the way bigger issue is that of fitness. There’s a pending show-cause notice against him and we see about that. He would have to prove his fitness, his view was valued in the Connection Camp and I am very thankful to that, but you cannot go around commenting on the selection committee over selection calls. But ya, the bigger issue is selection,” Mohsin Naqvi told the press conference while announcing fresh contracts.