Pakistan Cricket Board threatens to boycott ICC awards over exclusion of Saeed Ajmal

In order to record protest against exclusion of Saeed Ajmal, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has threatened to boycott the International Cricket Council (ICC) awards if it didn’t rectify its decision regarding Pakistani spinner.

PCB Chairman Zaka Ashraf while speaking to the media the board has not taken any decision about boycotting the awards but couldn’t rule out the possibility to do so in case the ICC didn’t change its decision.

He was of the opinion that the board was facing extreme pressure from the fans over the exclusion of brilliant spinner and to stay away from the awards.

Ashraf said, “The team would boycott the much-anticipated awards ceremony in Colombo later this month if the ICC stuck to its guns over the issue of keeping Saeed Ajmal out of the final list of nominees”.

Terming Ajmal one of the world’s best bowlers, the PCB chairman minced no words in saying the ICC’s decision unfair. He urged the international cricketing body to rectify its decision in this regard.

He noted, “We have once again lodged a strong protest against Amjal’s omission from the shortlist and hope that they (ICC) will review this unfair decision. It is universally agreed that Ajmal is the world’s spinner at the moment and deserves to be in contention for the award”.

Zaka Ashraf, however, cleared that they were clearly informed by the world cricketing body that the decision in this regard will not be changed.

According to it the awards’ list was prepared by an independent committee and ICC couldn’t make any change about it, he added.

He stated, “Personally I believe that it’s (awards process) an ICC business and they should have some say in undoing something that is clearly unjust”.

He informed that the Pakistan Cricket Board had dispatched a letter to ICC asking him to recondite the stance of the governing body regarding Saeed Ajmal.

Despite he was not selected in the list, Ajmal attained number slot in the ICC’s rankings for One-Day International (ODI) bowlers.

He, who had surpassed the 100-wicket mark in the opening ODI against Australia in Sharjah, scored 759 points in the ICC ratings.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Sep 6 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.