Shoaib Akhtar’s branding of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) being incompetent has infuriated quite a few in his nation’s cricketing fraternity. After the former pacer questioned the board in a YouTube video over repeated instances of corruption in Pakistan cricket, PCB has sent him a legal notice asking him to tender an unconditional apology and retract his statement.
Akhtar didn’t just question PCB over its policies when it comes to corruption in cricket but also singled out the legal department, suggesting adviser Taffazul Rizvi had advanced in his career through ‘contacts’ rather than competency.
In a statement issued by the PCB on Wednesday, the board said: “The language used by Shoaib Akhtar was highly inappropriate and disrespectful, and cannot be condoned in any civilized society.”
Rizvi, on the other hand, sent a legal notice to Akhtar with charges of ‘defamation and criminal proceedings’. The lawyer highlighted different legal charges and punishments that were levied against the Rawalpindi Express throughout his playing career and made the following demands:
- Retracts his statements
- Tenders an unconditional apology
- Pays Rs100 million in damages, which will be donated to the Medical Centre of LHC Bar Association
- Refrains from repeating and making further defamatory remarks against the lawyer
The vice president of the Pakistan Bar Council Abid Saqi had also released a statement on Akhtar’s comments, suggesting the body had taken “taken strong exception to Akhtar’s defamatory statements”.
Akhtar asked for match-fixing to be criminalised in the country in order to prevent occurrences of such cases in the future. He further took a swipe at the board and its legal advisor for failing to curb such offences.
“The PCB’s legal department and the advisor is highly inept,” Akhtar said in a YouTube video. “I don’t know where Tafazzul Rizvi has come from. He has good contacts and is working with the cricket board for the past 10 to 15 years. There is not a single case which he hasn’t lost. He lost one to me as well.”
