"Shock of my life" - Wasim Akram asks PCB to apologize for ignoring Imran Khan in promotional video
Legendary fast-bowler Wasim Akram called on the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to apologize and delete its promotional video for the 2023 Asia Cup for completely omitting former captain and Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The video uploaded on Pakistan's independence day on August 14 celebrated their on-field achievements since 1947. It included clips or photos from almost every ICC competition and Asia Cup they've played in, including the 1992 World Cup which they won under Imran's captaincy, without any sign of the man himself.
"After long flights and hours of transit before reaching Sri Lanka, I got the shock of my life when I watched PCB’s short clip on the history of Pakistan cricket minus the great Imran Khan…" Akram tweeted on Wednesday. "Political differences apart but Imran Khan is an icon of world cricket and developed Pakistan into a strong unit in his time and gave us a pathway… PCB should delete the video and apologise."
Imran, one of Pakistan's greatest-ever captains, was removed as Prime Minister in April 2022 after a no-confidence vote in parliament.
The country has seen myriad protests from both sides of the political divide with a complicated involvement of other stakeholders, including the military, since then. It culminated in his arrest on August 5 and a five-year ban from politics. He was sentenced to prison for “corrupt practices” by a court in Islamabad.
In the last few months, broadcasters in Pakistan have stopped showing Khan's images or even mentioning his name in what is being called an unsaid ban.
Shows people running the board are politically motivated: Former PCB chairman on Imran Khan's omission
Former PCB chairman Khalid Mahmood also demanded the deletion of the video recently, saying he was "really angry" at the board for letting political differences precede over the former captain's cricketing contributions.
"This incident just shows that the people running the board are not capable of doing it properly and are politically motivated."
The video's criticism surrounding Imran has mostly kept the attention away from the fact that most of the clippings are from Pakistan's wins against India, irrespective of how they performed overall in those tournaments. Some of their bigger successes have been given less screen time than such wins.
Moreover, the entire women's team has got a couple of seconds in the Independence Day video, that too from an Asia Cup win over India.