Pakistan Legend Wasim Akram’s Savage Reply To Former PCB Chief Ramiz Raja

Akram responded with "Who?" as soon as Ramiz was mentioned in the interview and it appears that things are not going well between the two former cricketers.

New Delhi: Over the past few weeks, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has undergone a number of administrative changes, with Najam Sethi taking over for Ramiz Raja as chairman. In December, Raja was fired from his position, and a 14-member managing committee was set up; Shahid Afridi was appointed as interim chief selector, and Haroon Rashid took over on the position permanently earlier this month.

Ramiz appeared on a number of Pakistani news channels after his abrupt departure from the PCB, where he criticized the new management and lamented his treatment following the sacking. In one interview, Ramiz went into detail about the decisions he made as PCB chairman and even said that he would have banned Wasim Akram from being mentioned in the Justice Qayyum match-fixing report.

“I think no one should have had the chance (of coming back to Pakistan cricket). If Wasim Akram’s name is in there, and he was censured for not cooperating, right? It was a borderline case. If I was the decision maker at the time, I would’ve banned them forever,” Ramiz Raja had said during an interview.

In an interview with Cricket Pakistan, Akram discussed the changes in PCB in detail, breaking his silence on Ramiz’s departure. Akram responded with “Who?” as soon as Ramiz was mentioned in the interview and it appears that things are not going well between the two former cricketers.

“There was a change in the Pakistan board. You talked about Najam Sethi, Ramiz Raja was removed…” the interviewer said before Akram interrupted him.

“Who?” asked Akram.

“How would you rate Ramiz Raja as PCB chairman?” the reporter continued.

To this, Akram had a rather savage response and said “Look, I don’t want to discuss this. Vo 6 din ke liye aaya tha, ab vo vaapis aa gaya hai apni jagah pe. (He came here for six days, now he’s back to where he belongs)”

“Najam Sethi has experience, and it’s no concept that only cricketers should be PCB chairman. You need to be a good administrator, and you need to be a good communicator and build a good repo with other boards. Najam Sethi sahab is the best in that. People can disagree for all I care. It’s my opinion,” he added.