Fakhar Zaman Tries To Clear The Air Between Him and The PCB

Controversial statements and fiery remarks have landed Fakhar Zaman under the microscope once again. 

Less than a month ago, Fakhar expressed his disappointment and agitation with the Pakistan Cricket Board after he was left out of the Pakistan tour of South Africa squad. 

Sources close to the batsman revealed that he started considering retirement from international cricket after the PCB didn’t consider selecting him for the PAK vs SA squads for any format. 

Days later, Fakhar Zaman has landed in the spotlight once again because of a tweet of his during the England tour of Pakistan in October. 

During Pakistan’s home series against England, Fakhar, in a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) account, expressed his disappointment over the exclusion of Babar from the last two Tests after a stretch of poor performances.

As a response to the post, the Pakistan Cricket Board issued a show-cause notice to Zaman and left him out of the central contracts for next year. 

Chief Selector Mohsin Naqvi had mentioned that Fakhar’s physical fitness issues, along with his tweet, were the main factors in his exclusion. “The fitness test and a pending show-cause notice were the main reasons for not including him in the central contracts list.” 

Months later, Fakhar took it upon himself to dig deeper into that old tweet of his and provide context to all those who were looking for an explanation. 

“I did think later it would have been better if I hadn’t posted the tweet. But people misunderstood it as criticism of the board’s decision, which is 100% wrong.” He explained that the tweet was aimed at those asking for Babar’s removal from the squad, not at the PCB.  

“I tweeted before the team announcement—about three days earlier. I saw some journalists and ex-players saying Babar should be dropped. I felt they were disregarding his contributions, so I responded. It wasn’t a criticism of the board,” he added.