The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) imposed a heavy fine of 20 million Pakistani rupees (approx 72000 USD or 67 lakhs INR) on pacer Naseem Shah for posting sarcastic tweets in reply to a PCB social media post of Punjab’s chief minister Maryam Nawaz. PCB deemed the tweet, which was quickly deleted, as breach of the clauses of his central contract.
The PCB announced that the disciplinary committee of the Board had found Naseem guilty of breaching clauses of his contract and behaving irresponsibly while posting tweets on his social media account.
Naseem was issued a show-cause notice on March 27 after Naseem Shah’s official X account quote-tweeted the post of Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz at Gaddafi Stadium from the PCB media account, saying “Why is she treated like the Queen at Lord’s?” Minutes later, Naseem’s post was taken down and replaced with another post saying his account had been hacked, and that it had been recovered by him.
Maryam visited the Gaddafi Stadium as the chief guest for the opening match of the Pakistan Super League.
Minutes later Naseem Shah posted a tweet in which he made sarcastic comments about the Punjab supremo.
A PCB statement said a hearing was held by a three-member disciplinary committee earlier today. In the hearing, Naseem rendered an unconditional apology and sacked his social media manager. The PCB also said the manager had been blacklisted by the PCB from associating with any other player falling within the PCB’s jurisdiction.
Despite the unconditional apology by Naseem, the committee found him guilty of multiple breaches. “Whilst noting the unconditional apology tendered, Naseem is found to have breached various clauses of his Central Contract and a fine of PKR 2 crores has been imposed,” PCB said in the statement.
This is not an isolated incident of PCB clamping down on political expression among cricketers. Last year, allrounder Aamer Jamal was slapped with a fine of more than 1 million PKR for displaying Imran Khan’s prisoner number on his floppy hat.
