The Pakistan Cricket Board’s Independence Day tribute to the nation’s cricketing legends is turning out to be a tragedy of errors and omissions. First, it dropped former prime minister and cricket captain Imran Khan from the clip, and then within three days, it released a new video rectifying the error. This time around, the tribute featured Khan, but there was no mention of fast bowler Wasim Akram. Ironically, it was Akram who pulled up the board for failing to acknowledge Khan in the video.
Both omissions have drawn the ire of fans and critics. But Faizan Lakhani, deputy sports editor with Geo News puts it down to an error.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with Wasim’s tweet criticising PCB,” he told ThePrint. “Removing Akram was another blunder or maybe a mistake, as they were under so much pressure to include Imran Khan’s image.They probably didn’t realise they had missed Wasim Akram.”
In fact, within a few hours, PCB released a third iteration of the video, which finally featured Akram and Khan.
The original video
The PCB’s original tribute, which was over two minutes long and released on 14 August, Pakistan’s Independence Day, made note of all the key cricketing moments—its 1952 international debut, 1992 World Cup victory and the 2022 T20 World Cup win. But it failed to mention Khan, who had captained the Pakistan team to World Cup victory over three decades ago.
The subsequent outrage spread like wildfire on social media, with hashtags like #ShameonPCB going viral on X (formerly Twitter).
“It was an absolute joke. Imran Khan must be the first to appear in a video talking about the history of Pakistan cricket,” said Dawn sports editor Abdul Ghaffar. “He groomed legends like Wasim, Inzamam [ul-Haq], Waqar [Younus] and many others.”
In fact, Akram was one of the first to pull up the PCB for its ‘omission’, which responded by calling it an “abridged version ” on Twitter.
Akram urged the board to “apologise” to Khan, whom he described as “an icon of world cricket” in a tweet.
Soon former cricketers Wahab Riaz and Shahid Afridi also questioned Khan’s absence.
Riaz, a fast bowler who announced his retirement from international cricket on 16 August, said that generations of children in Pakistan looked up to cricketers like Khan.
Also read: Imran Khan paid no heed to PCB flaws, he was obsessed with foreign model of cricket
When the PCB Omitted Akram
On Thursday the PCB released a new version featuring Khan but offered no apology for its past omission.
“The PCB has launched a promotional campaign leading up to the CWC 2023. One of the videos was uploaded on 14th August 2023. Due to its length, the video was abridged and some important clips were missing. This has been rectified in the complete version of the video,” read the caption of the updated video.
However, the fans quickly noticed that Akram, who had earlier criticised Imran’s exclusion, was missing in this new version. Some claim it was a deliberate omission.
Many tweeted that Akram’s criticism and Khan’s mention did not go down well with the PCB.
The PCB refused to comment on the recent incidents, Dawn reported.