New Delhi: Sacked Pakistan selectors Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq insisted they took ‘collective’ decisions and didn’t only pick their preferred players in the team for the T20 World Cup.
They were sacked after the team’s group stage exit from the T20 World Cup amidst allegations of favouritism and forcing selectors to agree to their decisions.
“To make collaborative decisions as part of the seven-man panel to select the national team was a privilege — everyone’s vote carries equal weight, we made selection decisions as a team and shared the responsibility of that process equally,” Wahab said in a statement.
“I don’t want to be in any blame game. But I don’t agree with claims that I put pressure on other members of the selection committee. How is it possible that one vote prevailed over six others.”
Wahab also said the entire process is documented on record in the ‘minutes of the meeting’.
“So how can I sway the other selectors while selecting the team?,” Razzaq said, adding that selection decisions were determined by the majority votes.
Wahab is regarded as close to incumbent PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, which made the move a surprising one. He had been associated with the PCB in different role for the past one year but waas accused of ignoring uncooperative and bad behaviour from star pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi during the T20 World Cup.
They also allegedly wanted to select several players who were not in form or fully fit.
Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq were sacked after Pakistan’s group stage exit from the T20 World Cup Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
