World Cup 2019: Gulbadin Naib avoids questions over Manchester restaurant altercation

Afghanistan succumbed to their fifth defeat in a row in the ongoing World Cup on Tuesday. England thumped them by 150 runs as the Asian team has been knocked out of the tournament. Things haven’t gone their way over in any of the matches and batting has been the major let down for them. However, apart from their performances, the off-field controversies has also affected the team it seems.

While Mohammad Shahzad being ruled out controversially wasn’t enough, it has been reported that few of the Afghanistan players were involved in an altercation at a restaurant in Manchester. The incident took on the night before the game against England and the skipper Gulbadin Naib cleared that he wasn’t involved in it. After the match on Tuesday, he was asked several questions about the incident and the Afghanistan skipper clearly refused to speak anything.

He requested the media to ask about the incident to the security officers and the team manager and not him. “No, no. I haven’t (was not there). So you can ask my security officers. I didn’t know anything about them,” Naib said.

It’s not a big issue

However, when asked if such off the field issues affect the team environment and the performance, the 28-year-old cleared that it isn’t a big issue. “This is not a big issue for the team, for me and others. Even I didn’t know anything about them so you can ask manager and security officers,” Naib further added. But when still the questions started to come up regarding the incident, the all-rounder cleared that he will leave.

Even the Afghanistan media manager insisted the reporters to ask the game related questions only and not about the off-field issues. As far as the altercation is concerned, the police had to arrive at the scene to settle things and investigation is currently in progress.