Veteran Pakistan pacer Hassan Ali has slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) management over the biased treatment given to him during his injury and giving VVIP treatment to young opener Saim Ayub.
While Saim, who injured his ankle during a Test match against South Africa in January 2025, underwent an operation in England and is recovering, Hassan spent more than 16 months in rehabilitation in 2020. No wonder, he has questioned the partial attitude of PCB against players.
“Saim Ayub is injured. He is a player of Pakistan team. I was not a player of the Pakistan team in 2020? If any other Pakistani player gets injured, he is not part of the team? Does he play for India? They are giving VVIP treatment to Saim Ayub. If anybody else gets injured, will they do the same for him? May god give good health to Saim. But when he gets injured again, will he get the same treatment? They will not give. We have to rectify this,” Hassan told the podcast Ultra Edge.
The right-arm seamer had suffered a back injury in 2019, followed by a stress fracture in the ribs and subsequent elevated disc injury, which led to an operation and he was sidelined for more than 16 months.
Hassan Ali then made his comeback to the Pakistan team during the Test series against South Africa at home in January 2021. Since then, he has featured in 15 Test matches, 13 ODIs and 21 T20Is but failed to make the cut in Pakistan’s Champions Trophy squad.
“The most painful thing during the injury was that my physio was changed every month. When our national team physio used to work with me some days, it would be okay, but when I would return to NCA, the story would be the same. This is for the whole 16 months and not for one month or two months. Whenever I used to recover, my physios would be changed, and it would be back to where I was. I did not know whether it was a slipped disc and was told it was a spasm initially. And then the stress fracture to the ribs happened, which worsened the problem,” he reminisced.
The 30-year-old, who has represented Pakistan in 24 Tests, 66 ODIs and 51 T20Is so far, called for stability in Pakistan cricket in terms of players and coaches.
“There is a lack of stability. I have seen many players in my eight years of international career who get out of the team without playing a single game. A team takes 3-4 years to build, and then after 8-9 years, the players have their downs too. But then one has to be sure about the plans. The biggest example is former Indian coach Rahul Dravid. India lost the ODI World Cup at home. They played fantastic till the final. And Rahul Dravid said goodbye after they won the T20 World Cup. In Pakistan, we remove coaches or players before the World Cup. Do we call this stability,” Hassan said.
