Former Pakistani wicketkeeper Rashid Latif, who is known for his conspiracy theories, claimed on Saturday that Zaka Ashraf, the head of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management committee, was ignoring Babar Azam’s attempts to contact him via calls and text messages.
However, the PCB officials have denied these allegations and expressed their surprise at Latif’s statement about Babar Azam attempting to call Zaka Ashraf. They further claimed that Babar had a long phone conversation with Chief Operating Officer Salman Naseer on Friday and had conveyed his appreciation to Zaka Ashraf for his role in resolving the central contract issue.
Earlier, Rashid Latif went on to say that the players are allegedly dealing with a problem where their central contracts offer them payments for a period of four to five months, but they haven’t received them yet.
“I know for a fact that Babar has got no response from the Chairman (Zaka Ashraf) when he called and messaged from India,” Latif said.
“The players have not got salaries..the Chairman is not responding to the captain and in these circumstances what do we expect from the team,” Rashid Latif added.
The officials clarified that Zaka Ashraf and Babar Azam had a fruitful encounter in India, refuting the idea that Zaka Ashraf disregarded Babar’s pleas for communication. The sources stressed that since there were no unfavourable exchanges between the skipper and the PCB chief, the talks of Babar Azam being overlooked were baseless.
Pakistan is on the verge of an early World Cup exit for the first time in their history after losing four straight games. Their chances of making it to the semi-finals were already in jeopardy after a heartbreaking loss to South Africa by 1 wicket in Chennai.
Babar Azam’s captaincy came under the scanner following Pakistan’s consecutive four losses in the marquee event. After dropping their last four games, the Men in Green are in a situation where they are practically out of advancing into the Semifinals of the ODI World Cup 2023.
The Pakistan skipper has been under pressure in the last few games because they have lost a lot of close games. Pakistan has not shown any signs of resistance; their fielders have been subpar, but most significantly, they have lost concentration midway through the competition.