The ICC World T20 trophy was unveiled today at the Army Public School, Peshawar by Ali. The venue perhaps was the pertinent one to honour 134 APS children who lost their lives in the barbaric terrorist attack on December 16, 2014, but the PCB’s choice of cherry-picking Ali to unveil the trophy is very much debatable.
Pakistan won the world T20 title only once since the world cup of limited-over format initiated in 2007. Pakistan won the cup in 2009 under veteran Younis Khan whose leadership was vital throughout the tournament to make the team triumphant.
The PCB’s decision to overlook the seasoned cricketer like Younis Khan, who could have been relatively much better choice to unveil the trophy instead of Azhar Ali, who is yet to make his international T20 debut.
It could have been any other cricketing great other than Younis Khan for the job, but the PCB’s attempt to ‘glorify’ Azhar Ali just like his sudden accession to captaincy out of nowhere after the 2015 World Cup warrants some justification.
It’s an open secret that Younis has not been on the good terms with the cricket board. But going by this argument, the World T20 is a global event and only a relevant cricketing figure should be honoured for trophy-unveiling.
The questions were also raised when the PCB overlooked 1992 World Cup winning captain Imran Khan to unveil ICC World Cup 2015 trophy during its tour to Pakistan last year. The trophy was subsequently unveiled by Misbahul Haq in Lahore and Javed Miandad in Karachi.
