After facing criticism, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has released a new updated commemorative video clip featuring Imran Khan, the 1992 World Cup winning captain.
On August 14, the video celebrating the best moments of Pakistan cricket was released without featuring Imran Khan. Following the video release, PCB faced huge backlash from the cricket fans and players for omitting Khan, who had led the team to victory 31 years back.
PCB has stated time constraints as the reason for some important clips missing. “The PCB has launched a promotional campaign leading up to the CWC 2023. One of the videos was uploaded on 14th August 2023. Due to its length, the video was abridged and some important clips were missing. This has been rectified in the complete version of the video,” PCB tweeted.
Cricket legend Wasim Akram on Wednesday urged the cricket board to delete the video released and apologise to the fans for not featuring Khan.
“Political differences apart but Imran Khan is an icon of world cricket and developed Pakistan into a strong unit in his time and gave us a pathway PCB should delete the video and apologise,” Akram wrote on X.
Pakistan had made a remarkable victory from the brink and defeated England in the final at MCG by 22 runs, till date their only 50-over World Cup win.
In the updated version, four parts of the video including Khan's contributions and lifting the trophy as captain in 1992, Misbah-ul-Haq's Test mace victory, the Women's teams victory at the Asia Cup and Nida Dar's achievement of 100 wickets were included.
The cricketer turned politician Khan is presently in jail for alleged corruption charges in Toshakhana case. He served as Pakistan Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022.