The fiasco might not end for quite a few days, as the final venue for this year’s Asia Cup hangs in the balance. While giving an interview with an Indian media outlet, Najam Sethi suggested England serve as a neutral ground.
“England could be a possibility as a venue for the Asia Cup,” Sethi said.
Responding to the statement, the former chairman of PCB, Ramiz Raja, probed about the mental capacity of the current PCB chief. According to him, the foremost purpose of the Asia Cup, especially when held before the World Cup, is to allow teams to accustom themselves to the Asian conditions.
However, even this statement wasn’t perceived well by former cricketer, Salman Butt. He slammed Raja and was surprised with former PCB chairman suggesting that even Asian teams need to acclimatize to Asian conditions.
“I came across former PCB’s chair statement where he stated that the Asia Cup should have taken place in Pakistan because the teams would get used to the Asian conditions before the World Cup. I am surprised even Asian players, who have played all their life in Asia, need to accustom themselves to the Asian conditions,” Butt said.
Taking a dig at the former PCB chair for his unsubstantiated statement, he further stated, “I am quite astonished by this statement, and it indeed is exasperating to believe that despite playing so much cricket and serving as the board official, people can get away easily after giving such poor statements.”
In an interview with Cricket Pakistan in 2021, Mohammad Hafeez said that, although he respects Ramiz as a former player, he has reservations regarding his ‘cricket sense’ and ‘game awareness.’
“If you talk to my 12-year-old son, even his game awareness is better than Ramiz bhai,” Hafeez had said.
