File photo of Shaheen Shah Afridi© AFP
Former captain Shahid Afridi claimed that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is not taking care of their star pacer Shaheen Afridi during his rehabilitation process. Named in Pakistan’s T20 World Cup squad, Shaheen left the UAE team to go to England for treatment and recovery from a knee injury sustained during the Test series against Sri Lanka. However, PCB chief Ramiz Raja came out to deny that the board had “disowned” Shaheen, saying it is inconceivable that the board would not care for the star pacer, calling it an “unfortunate controversy”.
Speaking about the controversy, former Pakistani captain Salman Butt lashed out at the PCB for not handling the situation properly.
“The board said it will reimburse the cost of the treatment. Isn’t a player’s medical expenses covered by the central contract? Central contract covers the treatment of the players even if he is a state player. Why are they talking about reimbursement? Why does the player have to spend money for his treatment? Isn’t the medical committee recommended by the board?” Butt said while interacting on his YouTube channel.
Notably, Shaheen toured with the team for the ODI series against the Netherlands. He was then excluded from the Asian Cup, but joined the team for the tournament as part of his rehabilitation.
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Pointing out the same, Butt said the board should have been prepared, even if they didn’t know the severity of Shaheen’s injury.
“You tour different countries all year round and you can’t even book a ticket for the player. Players shouldn’t get involved in this. If there was an emergency, you can probably ask the player to continue, and you can later reimburse the expenses. But in this case, the player was with you three times and you knew you had to send him in for treatment. Even if you didn’t know, there should have been a backup plan,” he added.
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