'He should focus on his own game' - PCB CEO Wasim Khan slams Mohammad Hafeez for his comments on Sharjeel Khan

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief executive officer Wasim Khan has reprimanded veteran allrounder Mohammad Hafeez for his recent comments regarding Sharjeel Khan. The former skipper recently stated that he is not fine with the way PCB is handling the case of the tainted batsman who looks set to return to Pakistan team.

Sharjeel had received a five-year ban from the PCB for the role he played in the PSL corruption scandal in 2017. But in August last year, the PCB suspended his sentence following an “unconditional apology” which saw Sharjeel return to the cricket field quite earlier than expected. Karachi Kings then gave him a chance to prove himself by buying him at the auction and asking him to open the innings.

Sharjeel managed just 199 runs from 10 games but showed flashes of brilliance. Talks of a potential return for him in the Pakistan team are now doing the rounds. However, Mohammad Hafeez has hinted that he is not fine with Sharjeel’s return to the team. He was replying to one such question on Twitter when he said, “Shouldn’t we set Standards of Dignity & Pride Higher than any other “Extra Talent” to represent Pakistan.”

I will talk to him personally, says Wasim Khan

Mohammad Hafeez’s comment has miffed the PCB and Wasim Khan has made it pretty clear. The PCB chief executive said the veteran batsman should be “focusing on his own cricket” instead of giving opinions on “right and wrong”.

“Current players should not be going up on social media to criticise other players or talk about what policies the cricket board should or shouldn’t have,” Wasim said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo. “They can have their opinions about various things about world cricket and cricket in general but not about the rights and wrongs of players and the boards and they should leave that to cricket board to answer.”

Khan further said that he would talk to Hafeez personally while also saying that the latter is not at a place to give comments like these. He cited the example of English players while claiming that players should not indulge in publicly speaking about policies and procedures of the board.

“I will be personally speaking to Mohammad Hafeez about that and I don’t think it’s his place to be doing it. No other player in the world does that so why should our Pakistani players do that? I don’t think they have any space to do that and I don’t think they should be doing that. That’s my personal view.

“Coming from an English environment, I never saw an English player tweet about policies, procedures, talking about other players’ right or wrong. My view is, he should focus on his own game, focus on the cricketing opinion he can give but don’t give personal opinion about other players,” added Khan.