The outgoing chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Shaharyar Khan has come hard at the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) while revealing the cricketing ties could only be revived when his ACB counterpart Atif Mashal would tender a public apology after blaming Pakistan over the Kabul blast.
“The Board [PCB] has taken a position that until they apologise in public, we should not be reviving any cricketing ties with them,” Shaharyar was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
In response, PCB then termed the act barbaric while expressing the solidarity with the victims of the blast, as the statement further hit-back at ACB’s claim while terming it farcical.
It’s pertinent to mention, on May 31, a suicide bomber blew himself in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul which left around 80 dead and as many as 500 injured that prompted Mashal to take a dig at Pakistan.
“He [Mashal] gave an extremely political statement about Pakistan, so then we told them that we don’t have anything to do with you,” Shaharyar added.
Following the unfortunate incident, ACB chief Mashal took to the micro-blogging website and blasted Pakistan for the alleged attack, before revealing the cricketing ties between Afghanistan and neighbouring country stand cancelled owing to the ‘mutual understanding’ which also included two proposed Twenty20 Internationals.
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In May, Shaharyar and Mashal had a healthy discussion over the friendly two-match series which was scheduled in Kabul and Lahore respectively in July and August, in order to expand the cricketing passion of both the countries.
Moreover, Shaharyar had also agreed to provide training camps for Afghanistan including venues when ACB delegation had a fruitful discussion with the octogenarian chief at Lahore in May this year.
However, according to PCB release, it was subjected to the full-proof arrangements and conducive atmosphere to meet the requirements.
“He later did express his regret on making the statement and had also apologised privately,” Shaharyar revealed.
Adding to the record book, Afghanistan has now also featured as Full Member while achieving the status of longer format alongside Ireland during the recently held world cricket governing body ICC’s meet.
Afghanistan which has shown the quality improvement after gaining the One-day International status in 2009, have recently fared well against Zimbabwe and Windies.
The war-hit nation Afghanistan is hinging on the promising prospects like leg-spin prodigy Rashid Khan, who left his impact while featuring in his maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) season, for its franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Shaharyar is scheduled to step down in August, as he would be replaced by PCB’s chief of an executive committee and Pakistan Super League (PSL) chairman Najam Sethi.