The Pakistan Cricket Board has dismissed speculation that legendary cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s name would be removed from an enclosure at the recently-renovated Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore owing to his incarceration on charges of corruption. Speculation was doing the rounds that PCB had removed the name of the 1992 World Cup-winning former captain from one of the enclosures at the stadium due to the “current political situation”.

“No names have been changed or removed on enclosures,” an official of the PCB said without taking any names, adding that names of all enclosures will remain as they were earlier.

The Gaddafi stadium has been renovated for the Champions Trophy that starts on February 19.

The Imran Khan enclosure, which is one of the VIP stands in the stadium, has been a permanent fixture at the venue since 1992.

The former Prime Minister is presently in Attock jail of Punjab province and has vehemently denied allegations of corruption, insisting that he is a victim of political vendetta.

However, a court recently convicted him and his wife Bushra Bibi in a corruption case, sentencing them to 14 and seven years respectively in prison.

Imran, who leads the Tehreek-e-Insaaf party, is currently in opposition to the ruling coalition government of Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Peoples Party.

The Punjab province is governed by a PML (N) government led by Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of former premier, Nawaz Sharif.

The Pakistan cricket team has come under a lot of fire after losing the first Test match against Bangladesh by 10 wickets in Rawalpindi. From team selection to the performances of the batters, various parts of Pakistan’s game were heavily criticised by both fans and experts. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also blasted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) headed by Mohsin Naqvi following the humiliating defeat. Imran took to social media to call the defeat “embarrassing” and accused the Naqvi-led PCB of “destroying” the sport in the country by appointing “favoured officials”.

“Cricket is the only sport the entire nation watches with great interest on TV, but even that has been destroyed by powerful quarters who brought in an unqualified, favoured official to maintain their control,” Imran Khan said, as quoted by his X account.

4. Mohsin Naqvi owns property worth five million dollars in Dubai under his wife’s name. He is involved in the wheat procurement scandal and was behind the most fraudulent election in our country. What are his qualifications? Under him, the law-and-order situation across the…

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 27, 2024

“For the first time, we (Pakistan) didn’t make it to the top four in the World Cup or the top eight in T20. And yesterday, we faced an embarrassing defeat against Bangladesh, setting a new low. Just two-and-a-half years ago, this team had defeated India by 10 wickets. What has happened in these two-and-a-half years that we lost to Bangladesh by 10 wickets? The blame for all of this collapse falls on one institution,” he added.

Meanwhile, former Pakistan head coach Mudassar Nazar also called PCB officials a bunch of confused people, who do not learn from mistakes.

“The PCB is full of confused people and they are making mistakes after mistakes, leading to increasing problems in Pakistan cricket,” Mudassar who also worked as Director of the National Academy, said.

(With PTI inputs)

Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has always been considered as a captaincy option for the Indian cricket team and recently, he has also expressed his desire to lead the side. In a recent interaction, Bumrah said that it is high time that bowlers are looked at as captaincy choices and even called them the ‘smart ones’. During the conversation, he also cited the examples of legends like Imran Khan and Kapil Dev who went on to win the World Cup. However, former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali believes that Bumrah should not chase captaincy and instead, work towards becoming an all-round player. He pointed out that both Imran and Kapil were celebrated all-rounders of their time and that is different from Bumrah.

“About Jasprit Bumrah’s statement, it’s just like how Babar Azam likes captaincy. In my opinion, he should not chase captaincy. He is a top-class bowler and should be focussing just on that. He gave the examples of Kapil Dev and Imran Khan’s captaincy. However, they had become all-rounders, which is why they succeeded as captains. They were not appointed captains when they came into their teams as bowlers. This is the difference between a bowler and an all-rounder,” Basit said on his YouTube Channel.

Bumrah has already led Indian cricket team in a Test match against England in 2022. However, things did not go to plan as India were defeat in the encounter. Basit added that there is a good chance that Bumrah can end up becoming the India captain after the Champions Trophy 2025. However, he once again said that very few fast bowlers have made great captains or coaches in international cricket.

“He also spoke about Pat Cummins. Yes, Cummins is a good captain, but there are very few fast bowlers who can become a good coach or captain. My best wishes to Jasprit Bumrah. There is a chance that he could be made the captain after the Champions Trophy,” the former Pakistan cricketer added.