The Pakistan cricket team is currently on a Tour of Australia. It's a new-look Pakistan cricket team with Shan Masood being the captain of the side. The Pakistan cricket team is currently playing in a warm-up match against Australia Prime Minister's XI at Manuka Oval, Canberra. During the match on Wednesday, an untoward incident happened during the broadcast of the game when Imam Ul Haq and Abdullah Shafique were batting.
The broadcasters of the match, Fox Cricket, went for the abbreviation 'Paki' instead of the traditional 'Pak' while denoting the Pakistan team in the ticker of the screen. 'Paki' is an offensive word for people of Pakistan origin as well as the Indian sub-continent.
Australian cricket journalist Danny Saeed raised the issue on X. Cricket Australia then changed the display name to 'PAK' and issued a statement: “The graphic was an automatic feed from a data provider which had not been used previously for a Pakistan game. This was obviously regrettable, and the error we corrected manually as soon as it came to light.”
Talking about the match, new Pakistan skipper Shan Masood hit an unbeaten 156 on Wednesday in a warm-up match in Canberra ahead of their three-Test series against Australia. After winning the toss and opting to bat against a Prime Minister's XI, he came to the crease when opener Imam-ul-Haq was dismissed for nine.
Masood batted for the rest of the day, smashing 13 fours and a six to steer Pakistan to 324-6 at stumps on the opening day of the four-day fixture.
Sarfaraz Ahmed made 41 and star batter Babar Azam, who stood down as captain in all formats of the game after their disastrous one-day World Cup, hit 40. Australia's bowlers laboured on a flat pitch at Manuka Oval with speedster Jordan Buckingham the pick with 3-63.
All-rounder Cameron Green, who has been sidelined from the Test side by Mitchell Marsh, did not turn his arm.
It proved a long day in the field for aspiring Australian Test openers Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Matt Renshaw, who are vying to replace David Warner when he retires from the longer format after the Pakistan series.
The visitors meet Australia in three Tests -- in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney -- from December 14.
With AFP inputs