Former PCB CEO Wasim Khan in his latest interview said that he refused free travels to Dubai to certain media elements that became the reason of his strained relations with certain elements in Pakistani media.
A short audio clip of Wasim Khan circulated on social media on Friday in which he is heard talking about reasons for his tense relations with Pakistan’s media. Speaking to Jarrod Kimber, Wasim Khan said that since he belonged to a different school of thought he did not give many benefits to the journalists like free travel.
Khan said that certain sections of media attacked him because he refused to give them access to the dressing room of the Pakistan Cricket Team and also free visits to Dubai. He described the hostile reactions from certain media elements as ‘envy probably jealousy’.
In quite a telling interview with Jarrod Kimber, Wasim Khan (Former CEO @TheRealPCB) reveals how a certain section of the media attacked him because he refused to give dressing room access to them along with free trips to Dubai.
Quite the revelation tbh.pic.twitter.com/AuiMAbo7gj
— Waqas Ahmed (@ahmedwaqas_92) March 18, 2022
Read more: Outgoing PCB Wasim Khan complains of character assassination by media
Wasim Khan understood from the beginning that his three years in Pakistan would be tough. “The fact that a certain culture existed with the media from previous regimes. I came from a different school of thinking. But if they expected me to be giving them inside tracks and inside information on a daily basis that’s not how I worked,” said Wasim Khan.
Journalism only for perks?
There were lots of perks and privileges certain elements of media were getting like trips to Dubai and other places before his arrival. Wasim Khan said he and Ehsan Mani looked into this matter. The former CEO said that Ehsan Mani, being a former president of ICC was a respected person. They both looked into this and thought why spend money on the perks and privileges on them just to keep them happy so they write good stories for Pakistan Cricket.
Wasim Khan added that many of these people were not qualified sports journalists but only journalists. Hence these people resorted to sensationalism rather than reporting factual stories because they lacked journalistic backgrounds to write on cricket.
“You don’t build credibility overnight. People don’t trust systems but people. So I and Ehsan Mani decided to use our facilitation skills and our relationships across the world to slowly start the process of giving confidence to countries about the security situation in Pakistan. We talked to MCC. We continuously talked to countries to build their trust because trust comes from people and not from systems,” he said.