Rawalpindiz owner Ahsan Tahir has revealed that the punishment handed to fast bowler Naseem Shah over a controversial social media post about Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Maryam Nawaz was initially far more severe, and that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi personally intervened to bring it down to just a fine.
Tahir shed light on what happened behind the scenes.
“Initially what we understood from the committee, the judgment was actually quite harsh, much more than this. And then Chairman Mohsin Naqvi Saab intervened and he substantially reduced it to just the fine, and even the fine he reduced to actually a relatively smaller amount than what was initially proposed from the committee,” he said during a recent interview.
Tahir also defended the principle behind the action, saying cricketers entering political territory is a road that leads nowhere good.
“It’s a very slippery slope once players get involved in political commentary. Players represent the heartbeat and the sentiments of millions and millions of people, so if they start going in that direction, it gets very ugly very fast,” he opined.
He pointed to examples from across the border as a warning.
“That has happened across the border and that has given the world a very different flavor of cricket. That’s not really pleasant, actually. I am personally a big advocate of making sure that sports stay away from all of that as much as possible,” he added.
They controversy started after a now-deleted post from Naseem Shah’s X account showed a picture of Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz at the Gaddafi Stadium with the caption, “Why is she treated like the Queen at Lord’s.”
The post prompted the PCB to issue a show-cause notice to the bowler. Following disciplinary proceedings, the board imposed a fine of around twenty million rupees on Naseem Shah.
Naseem later issued a public apology, clarifying that the post did not reflect his personal views and had been shared by his management team. In a statement on X, he said he takes full responsibility for his account and has since put measures in place to prevent such incidents in the future.
