Babar Azam (L) and Virat Kohli© X (Twitter)
Pakistan cricket team batter Fakhar Zaman opened up about his controversial Virat Kohli–Babar Azam post on social media and the backlash that he faced over it. Fakhar supported Babar after the former Pakistan skipper was dropped during the home Test series against England and even namedropped Kohli in his social media post. However, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) was not pleased with the reaction and Fakhar was dropped from the central contracts list. During an interview with PAK TV, Fakhar said that he was not criticising PCB and added that he was merely expressing his own opinion.
“I thought about it later and felt that I should not have tweeted. But people got the tweet completely wrong. They thought that I was criticising the decision of the board, but this is 100 per cent wrong. If you see the timing of the tweet, it was done before the board made its decision. I saw in the news for 2-3 days that journalists and former players were criticising him (Babar Azam). And I thought to myself, Babar has done so much for the team, but they still wanted him to be dropped,” Fakhar said in the interview.
“I saw that and tweeted my opinion out. But I understand that no one is bigger than the board. I will even tell my junior cricketers that however big you become, you are not bigger than the board and you should not be criticising them during your playing days. But ya, my clarification is that I made my tweet before the team was announced,” he further added.
While Fakhar was dropped from the central contracts list, PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi made it clear that it was not just about the social media post. He added that Fakhar’s performances have not been up to the mark lately and even pointed out that his fitness was one of the main reasons behind the decision.
“Tweet was one issue, but the bigger matter was that of fitness. There is a show-cause notice pending against him, and we will see about that. He would need to prove his fitness, his point of view was valued in the Connection Camp and I am very thankful to him for that but you cannot go around commenting on the selection committee over selection calls. But ya, the bigger issue is of selection,” Mohsin Naqvi said in the press conference while announcing fresh contracts.
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