PCB dismisses objections over cricket team’s support for Palestine
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has dismissed objections over the national cricket team showing their solidarity for Palestine on social media.
Pakistan cricket team is currently playing the ICC Cricket World Cup in India. On October 10, the national team’s wicketkeeper-batsman, Muhammad Rizwan, tweeted in support of Palestine, dedicating his performance in the win against Sri Lanka to the people of Gaza.
This was for our brothers and sisters in Gaza. 🤲🏼
— Muhammad Rizwan (@iMRizwanPak) October 11, 2023
Happy to contribute in the win. Credits to the whole team and especially Abdullah Shafique and Hassan Ali for making it easier.
Extremely grateful to the people of Hyderabad for the amazing hospitality and support throughout.
After his tweet, many Indian fans and anchors raised objections and complained to the International Cricket Council (ICC) which dismissed the objections and replied, “This is outside of the field and not in our domain, only their Cricket Board can take any action”.
Last night almost all of the national cricket team including Haris Rauf, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmad, Usama Mir, Umar Akmal, Asif Ali, Bilawal Bhatti, Muhammad Nawaz, Abid Ali, Kamran Akmal, Azhar Ali, Noman Ali, Amer Yamin, Wasim Junior, Sohail Tanveer, Muhammad Abbas, Faheem Ashraf, Sahibzada Farhan and others posted pictures of the Palestinian flags on their social media accounts.
A storm of criticism was raised on social media by Indian fans, many of their cricket experts and anchors.
According to sources, PCB has dismissed all objections, stating: “The team’s expression of solidarity was a personal decision.”
— Haris Rauf (@HarisRauf14) October 18, 2023
☮️ ☮️ ☮️ ☮️ pic.twitter.com/r8E31Jsfya
— Shadab Khan (@76Shadabkhan) October 18, 2023
Allah pls help Palestine 🇵🇸 🙏 😢 . pic.twitter.com/66CYH1zdDG
— Mohammad Amir (@iamamirofficial) October 19, 2023
☮️ 🤲🏻💔🥺 pic.twitter.com/uVh2QWtcJF
— Iftikhar Ahmad (@IftiMania) October 18, 2023