PCB warns Saqlain Mushtaq for praising MS Dhoni on his YouTube channel

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) rebuked former Test spinner Saqlain Mushtaq for showering over the board praises on the former Indian captain MS Dhoni and criticizing the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for not giving a proper farewell match to the Indian veteran. PCB doesn’t want its players to refrain from passing comments on the Indian players due to the tense political relations between the two nations.

On August 15, 2020, Dhoni had drawn curtains to his illustrious international career of 16 years. He had bid adieu to the gentleman’s game without any farewell match or press conference. To congratulate The Ranchi Stalwart a lot of Pakistan’s cricketers had tweeted appreciation messages for him. Similarly, Mushtaq had spoken about the same on his YouTube channel.

“I always say positive things and try not to spread negativity in any way but I think I should say this. This is kind of a defeat of BCCI. They did not treat a big player like him in the right way. The retirement shouldn’t have happened like this. This is coming straight from my heart and I believe millions of his fans feel the same way. I’m really sorry to the BCCI that I’m saying this but they didn’t treat Dhoni well, I’m hurt,” Saqlain had said in the video.

PCB admonishes Saqlain Mushtaq

The stance of Mushtaq didn’t go well with the Pakistan board and they warned him to not comment on the Indian cricketers henceforth. The board also reminded him that he is a board employee and he can’t post videos on YouTube. Saqlain is the head of international players development at the High-Performance Centre.

“The PCB was not impressed by Saqlain for over the board praise of Dhoni and his obvious interference in Indian cricket affairs when he criticized the BCCI for not giving Dhoni a proper farewell match,” a well-informed source said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

“Many of these coaches were managing their channels on YouTube but have now been told clearly that since they are employees of the board they can’t work on YouTube and secondly even while giving interviews in the media they have to first seek clear permission from the board,” he added.

Besides coaches, many former Pakistan players are also quite active on social media namely Basit Ali, Faisal Iqbal, Atiq uz Zaman, Muhammad Wasim and Abdul Razzaq. Now, all of them have been given strict warnings regarding following the protocol of the board otherwise they could face disciplinary action.

“Obviously they are employed with the board and they have been told they have to either follow terms of their contract and service rules or decide what they want to do,” the source said.