Wasim Akram Loses Cool During Live Show Over Champions Trophy Ceremony Row
The cricketing fraternity in Pakistan was left scratching its heads upon its failure to spot a single Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official at the presentation ceremony after the conclusion of the ICC Champions Trophy final between India and Australia. ICC chairman Jay Shah could be seen on the stage, handing the trophy to the winning captain Rohit Sharma and distributing medals to all players. But, none of the PCB officials became part of the proceedings on the stage at any point in time despite Pakistan being the official hosts for the tournament.
Since the ceremony concluded, there’s been plenty of outrage in Pakistan over the manner in which it all 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 final in Dubai, Akram highlighted that PCB COO Sumair Ahmed Syed was at the venue, in place of chairman Mohsin Naqvi as PCB’s representative, but he was nowhere to be seen during the ceremony.
“As far as I know, Chairman Saab (PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi) wasn’t well but the people that came from there (PCB) were Sumair Ahmad Syed (Chief Operating Officer of PCB) and Usman Wahla (Director of International for PCB) but no one was there on the stage,” he said.
The incident has since snowballed 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 may be who was representing Chairman Saab, why weren’t they on stage? Were they not invited? I don’t know what is 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 somebody should’ve been there. (It was imperative that one of the representatives from Pakistan should have had representation in any form, doesn’t matter if that person was giving the Cup, medals or not),” added Akram.
