Mumbai: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday released another video of its promotional campaign for supporting its team for the upcoming Cricket World Cup 2023. The video comprises of iconic moments of the game for the Pakistan Cricket team in the World Cup games. PCB has shared the video and highlighted the achievements of all the Pakistani players in the 12 World Cups held till date. And yes, Imran Khan's achievements for the game has also been highlighted this time in the video that spans for 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Imran Khan excluded from the video released earlier
Earlier, Pakistan Cricket Board released a video on the occasion of its Independence Day on August 14. The video highlighted the iconic moments in Pakistan cricket after its Independence.
The video mentioned the achievements of both Pakistan men's and women's cricket team. However, the video did not had glimpse of former Pakistan Captain Imran Khan, who won the World Cup for the country in 1992. Imran Khan's exclusion from the video was surprising for the fans, hence they started to troll PCB for the video. Pakistan Cricket Board faced ire from cricket fans and also Imran Khan's supporters in the country. After the backlash, PCB issued clarification regarding the video.
Former Pakistan Captain Wasim Akram reacts
Former Pakistan Captain Wasim Akram also slammed PCB for not adding Imran Khan in the video. He said that "After long flights and hours of transit before reaching Sri Lanka, I got the shock of my life when I watched PCB’s short clip on the history of Pakistan cricket minus the great Imran Khan… political differences apart but Imran Khan is an icon of world cricket and developed Pakistan into a strong unit in his time and gave us a pathway… PCB should delete the video and apologise."
Pakistan Cricketer Iftikhar Ahmad's Tweet
Pakistan cricketer Iftikhar Ahmad also registered his protest against the video on social media and said that "Just watched PCB’s short clip on the history of Pakistan cricket minus the great Imran Khan… political differences apart but Imran Khan is an icon of world cricket. How can they skip these iconic moments?"
Shahid Afridi comes out in support of Imran Khan
As per reports, Shahid Afridi also came out in support of Imran Khan after PCB released the video. He said that "Services of our heroes in the cricket fraternity should never be impacted by any political stances."
PCB issues clarification
PCB said that "The PCB has launched a promotional campaign leading up to the CWC 2023. One of the videos was uploaded on 14th August 2023. Due to its length, the video was abridged and some important clips were missing. This has been rectified in the complete version of the video." PCB also shared the complete video on its official social media account.
Imran Khan jailed
Former Pakistan Prime Minister and Captain Imran Khan has been jailed for three years allegedly for thefts related to Toshakhana Case. Imran Khan has been sentenced for three years and also fined for 1 Lakh Pakistani Rupees. On exclusion of Imran Khan's video clips the fans were furious and were asking to keep politics away from the game. Fans also asked Pakistan Cricket Board to add Imran Khan's acheivements in the video, who won the first Cricket World Cup for the country in 1992.
PCB releases new video
Sharing the video on its official site, Pakistan Cricket Board said that "From the pitch to glory, let's recap Pakistan's journey across the 12 ICC World Cup editions. We stand strong together."
