Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan remains one of the most decorated cricketers in the country's history. It was under his leadership that Pakistan won the 1992 World Cup. But, as Pakistan Cricket Board shared a video on social media, remembering the contributions of some of its greatest players, there was no mention of Imran Khan. Furious with the board's decision, fans took to Twitter to slam the PCB for its action. Even former chairman of the board, Khalid Mahmood, demanded the withdrawal of the video released by the PCB on Independence Day for ignoring Imran Khan's contribution to the game in the country.
But the board has come in for severe backlash and criticism for the video which does not mention or feature any snippet or picture of former captain, Imran who led Pakistan to the 1992 World Cup triumph.
Even #ShameOnPCB became one of the top trends on X (formerly Twitter) as fans expressed their disappointment. Here are some reactions from fans after the video was released.
"This video must be withdrawn by the PCB immediately and released again with proper mention of Imran's contribution to Pakistan cricket," Mahmood told the "Aaj" channel.
Mahmood said it was a farce that when the ICC released the World Cup promo video and didn't acknowledge Babar Azam properly, everyone had raised a noise about it.
"We should first look at ourselves as to what we are doing with our own heroes then criticise others," Mahmood, who has held several important positions in the board, said.
"You may have countless differences of opinion with Imran Khan as a politician or what happened during his government tenure when he was the Prime Minister. But that does not mean you can ignore his role in bringing so many laurels to Pakistan as a player and captain." Mahmood said it was unfortunate that in Pakistan currently everything is being looked at politically and even sports is not being spared.
"This incident just shows that the people running the board are not capable of doing it properly and are politically motivated." He said Imran played a big role in winning the World Cup and on numerous other occasions has brought pride and respect for Pakistan cricket.
"How can you ignore his contribution, whatever his politics might be. I strongly condemn this video and I am really angry at how this has been allowed to happen."
With PTI inputs