Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is alleged to have protested against the Pakistan Cricket Board and their security arrangements for the Karachi Test against England after refusing to take the field in the first hour of Day 2 on Saturday.
Azam stayed put in his hotel room for the initial exchanges of the second day in the third and final Test while experienced wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan was given stand-in captaincy.
The news from the home team’s dressing room was that their regular captain is feeling unwell. However, as per reports doing the rounds in Pakistan, Babar is understood to have protested against the board for a security mishap that took place the night before in Karachi.
Former Pakistan wicketkeeper Rashid Latif claimed to know the whereabouts of the incident, stating Babar did enter a heated exchange with one of the security guards, feeling mistreated and disrespected by the personnel on duty after trying to leave the hotel premises in Karachi for a dinner at a nearby restaurant.
“An incident took place last night. It has come out in the media that is why I am revealing it, otherwise I wouldn’t have. The players were supposed to go out for dinner with family. The security needs to be made aware of it,”
he said on a local news channel, as quoted by Hindustan Times.
“The players, including Azhar Ali, Imam Ul Haq and Babar Azam had informed them. But when they reached the lobby and were about to get inside the car, the security told Babar that he can’t go out and the rest cannot. So no one went.”
The bone of contention for Babar is believed to be the differential treatment by the security personnel, who let his teammates Imam-ul-Haq and Azhar Ali leave the hotel and head to the restaurant they were planning to go but kept the skipper on hold, leading to a heated argument between the two. Disappointed Babar then decided to stay confined to his hotel room.
It came as a shock to Babar why he would be stopped by the security guards in such a manner and be interrogated over it, especially since the protocols set by PCB allow players to leave the hotel premises as long as they tell the security men why they are intending to. It’s very obvious that the Pakistan players told the guards about their dinner plans as Imam and Azhar were allowed to step out, making it a wonder why Babar wasn’t subjected to the same treatment.
Aggrieved by the issue, Babar reportedly cancelled his plans for the restaurant dining that day and stayed put in his hotel room. The cricketer confined himself to the hotel even for the start of the day’s play the next morning, before finally returning to take the field and getting the captaincy duties back from Rizwan.
The PCB is usually quick to dismiss reports on the outside if they find issues but hasn’t yet come up with a formal statement about the Babar controversy, fuelling doubts about the legitimacy of the claims made in the media circle.
Either way, the Ramiz Raja-led regime and Babar’s captaincy are under scrutiny as Pakistan play like a sinking ship against a visiting England side, staring at an embarrassing 3-0 Test series whitewash in home conditions, a result that would take them out of the race to bag one of the spots at the World Test Championship final next summer in England.
Pakistan also play two Tests against New Zealand, starting the Boxing Day, in a series that would be reduced into insignificance on the WTC front if the side does go down with a whitewash at the hands of England.
