The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) took a U-turn and decided to waive the 50% match fee penalty it had levied on batter Azam Khan for putting a Palestine flag on his batting in the ongoing National T20 Cup.
This was evident when Azam Khan's team Karachi Whites took on Lahore Blues at the National Stadium on Sunday, and his bat had a Palestine flag on it.
The Karachi Whites wicketkeeper-batter was fined 50% of his match money for committing a level-1 violation during his team's National T20 Cup 2023-24 match against Lahore Blues at National Bank Stadium in Karachi.
Azam was judged to have broken Article 2.4 of the PCB Code of Conduct For Players and Players Support Personnel by failing to comply with an Umpire's instruction or directive during a match on multiple occasions.
Players and team officials are not permitted to wear, display, or otherwise convey personal messages on their equipment unless approved in advance by both the player or team official's cricket association and PCB Cricket Operations Department.
According to the ICC code of conduct, "players shall not be allowed to display messages that carry political, religious, or racial activities or causes."
However, PCB’s decision to fine Azam Khan for supporting Palestine led to a furor on social media with cricket fans and people criticizing the board.
This led to PCB stating that they had reviewed the whole matter and decided to waive the penalty that was imposed by the match officials.
In a release, the PCB said: "Azam Khan's 50 percent fine imposed by match officials has been reviewed and waived off by the Pakistan Cricket Board.”
It was also reported that Azam had used the same sticker in the last two matches, but was not informed or warned by the officials before Sunday's match.
(PTI Inputs)
