Pakistan’s cricket team player Ahmed Shehzad who has fallen out of favour has decided not to participate in the domestic 50-over cricket tournament called the Champions Cup, starting from September 12 at Faisalabad. Announcing his choice, he pointed out that he is not pleased with anything. For instance, he criticized the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for “wasting” money on mentors for high costs during tournaments. He also accused PCB of favoritism; making “false offers” and doing injustice towards domestic players. This is how Shehzad expressed his pain in a post on X: “It is with heavy heart that I choose not to take part in the Domestic Cricket Champions’ Cup”.
“The PCB’s bias, unrealistic pledges, and discrimination against local athletes are intolerable. “When there is inflation, hardship and heavy electricity bills in Pakistan – PCB wastes five million rupees on useless advisors while handing rewards to those who have played very low level cricket,” he went on.
A former Pakistani cricketer, Waqar Younis has recently been signed as one of the five mentors for the Champions Cup teams. This week, the PCB issued an announcement confirming that Younis will join other mentors for the Champions cup including Misbah-ul-Haq, Saqlain Mushtaq, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik.
In total, the five mentors of Champions Cup sides have together coached 1,621 international matches, resulting in a total of 32,780 runs and 1,503 wickets.
Sarfaraz and Shoaib are two-time ICC Event winners; Misbah has been one-time ICC Event winner also captain of ACC Asia Cup winning team 2012; Saqlain and Waqar were among the players who took part in 1999 Cricket World Cup finals.
“It is even more disrespectful that PCB claims they do not have ‘surgical instruments’ which is a big insult to everyday cricketers. As a true Pakistani and cricket lover I cannot endorse such an unjust system.” Shehzad added.