The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) may have severed even more ‘connections’ with their Connection Camp in Lahore. Having scheduled a meeting with eight centrally contracted cricketers on September 23, the results aren’t that great. Test coach Jason Gillespie and white-ball coach Gary Kirsten were present alongside PCB Chief Mohsin Naqvi and CEO Salman Naseer as they talked with Babar Azam (white-ball captain), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Saud Shakeel, Shadab Khan and Shan Masood (Test captain).
‘Connections’ severed in Camp
Players expressed unhappiness with the current state of the PCB and claimed that Naqvi’s past comments regarding a ‘major surgery’ on the Pakistan Cricket Team hadn’t helped them. An unnamed player said, “To perform well, we need a peaceful mind,” highlighting how such comments harm performance and overall results. “PCB should also pay attention to its internal affairs,” another player said on the chief’s ‘hurtful comments’ and to introspect that’s going on inside the board as well.
In the past 12 months, multiple players have been denied NOCs to play in several franchise leagues. Players like Haris Rauf were denied to play in the Big Bash, and recently Fakhar Zaman was called back from the CPL to play in their domestic tournament Champions One-Day Cup. The PCB allows just two NOCs a year for franchise leagues, and a player alleged that they often don’t get them on time.
“The PCB often postpones these requests, and we receive no response,” a player said. Upon hearing this, Naqvi told CEO Salman Neseer to fix these things. Safe to say, he won’t be happy getting criticised in front of everyone, and this probably won’t help with building ‘connections’.
