Criticism has arisen from former cricketers and the public after Chairman of the PCB Management Committee, Zaka Ashraf, revealed a personal WhatsApp message from skipper Babar Azam during a TV show. This action was taken in response to media reports suggesting that Ashraf was not responding to Azam’s messages or calls.
Former Pakistan skipper and wicketkeeper batter, Rashid Latif, had previously claimed that Babar Azam was not receiving responses to messages sent to Ashraf, CEO Salman Naseer, and Director Usman Wahla.
During a recent TV show, Zaka Ashraf contradicted Rashid Latif’s claims, asserting that Babar had never directly contacted him, thus refuting any issue of non-responsiveness. To clarify the situation, Ashraf displayed a screenshot of a conversation between Babar Azam and the PCB CEO.
In the message, the PCB CEO asked Babar Azam whether he had recently called Zaka Ashraf, to which Babar responded, “Salman bhai, I have not made any call to sir.”
The host of the TV program, who displayed these messages, confirmed that they were shown with the approval of Zaka Ashraf.
An alleged private WhatsApp chat between Babar Azam, and the COO of PCB Salman Naseer was leaked and discussed during a live TV show. The discussion on leaked conversion has created a storm on social media including the former cricketer Azhar Ali who was present at the show. Many have criticized this as a breach of privacy and unethical behavior.
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Reports on social media had suggested that the PCB’s senior management was ignoring Babar Azam’s messages. Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif added fuel to the fire when he claimed on PTV Sports that Babar had been trying to contact PCB Management Committee Chairman Zaka Ashraf, Chief Operating Officer Salman Naseer, and Director of International Cricket Usman Wahla for the past two days, but none of them had responded to his messages.
Anchorperson Waseem Badami in a video released later said that PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf had asked the media channel to run the screenshot of the Whatsapp chat on the live show, which triggered more backlash.