Pakistan Cricket Board backflip after former captain Imran Khan left out of celebratory video

The Pakistan Cricket Board have made a huge backflip after brutally snubbing their 1992 World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan.

The Pakistan Cricket Board have backflipped on a “political” move, having left former World Cup-winning captain Imran Khan out of a commemoratory video in a move that left Pakistan cricket fans outraged.

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In an update a day later, the Board released another video, 14 seconds longer than the original, with a statement.

“The PCB has launched a promotional campaign leading up to the CWC (Cricket World Cup) 2023,” the statement read.

“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.”

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 ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/Rz2OBDyI9i

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) August 16, 2023

The only change to the video is the inclusion of Khan’s achievements throughout the 1980s and 1990s, showing the Lahore-born all-rounder lifting the 1992 Cup aloft.

Ostensibly released as part of celebrations for Pakistan’s Independence Day, which falls on August 14, the video detailed some of the highlights of Pakistani cricket over the years, dating back to the nation’s international debut in 1952, but initially excluded Khan.

Pundits and fans alike saw it as restorative justice, although some fans saw through the explanation.

“After bizarrely going to war with their own fans with a universally panned Independence Day video, the PCB have finally backed down, releasing a new promo that does feature Imran Khan,” said Cricinfo’s Danyal Rasool.

“It took two days so maybe the hashtag is correct, it‘s #beyondjustoneday.

“The Imran Khan-free video, meanwhile, has been deleted.”

Imran Khan led Pakistan to their maiden World Cup victory in 1992. Photo: Australian Picture Library/All Sport

Wisden’s Ben Gardner was similarly sardonic.

“This is a full 14 seconds longer than the previous video,” Gardner wrote.

“No prizes for guessing what the new quarter-minute of content focuses on.”

Many fans on social media noted that since the Pakistan Cricket Board have had a verified Twitter account since 2014, they are able to post videos up to 2 hours long, and subsequently that the explanation for leaving Khan out did not hold water.

Interestingly, the new video now excludes a different legend of Pakistan cricket, fast bowler Wasim Akram.

While the “Sultan of Swing” is widely considered the greatest left-armer in history, and is in the conversation of the greatest fast bowler of all time, Akram was notably left out of the edited video.

Akram was the top wicket-taker at the 1992 World Cup, and was the first bowler in history to reach the 400-wicket mark in both Tests and One-Day Internationals.

More recently, however, he had spoken out in defence of Khan, labelling his exclusion from the initial video “political” and calling on the Pakistan Cricket Board to apologise.

“I got the shock of my life when I watched PCB’s short clip on the history of Pakistan cricket minus the great Imran Khan,” Akram tweeted of his former captain.

“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.”

Wasim Akram (right) is considered equally a hero of Pakistan cricket, but saw himself erased from history after speaking out for his former captain.

Khan stands almost universally as the greatest cricketer the nation has ever produced, taking 362 Test wickets at an average of 22.81 while also scoring 3,807 runs at an average of 37.69 with six hundreds.

At his prime, his form and performances for Pakistan in the 1980s rank him third in the ICC’s All-Time Test Bowling Rankings.

The pinnacle of his career, as with Pakistan cricket generally, came in 1992, when he led the nation to the most unlikely of World Cup victories – his rousing “cornered tigers” speech stands in cricket folklore as the stuff of legend, and it stood alone as Pakistan’s only ICC silverware until 2009.

Since retiring from cricket, Khan has entered politics, founding the “anti-status quo” political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and became the Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2018, serving for four years before being removed from office after a successful National Assembly vote of no-confidence in 2022.

While Khan claimed his removal was a “foreign conspiracy”, he was later charged with corruption and having incorrectly declared details of presents from foreign dignitaries.

Khan was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison, and barred for holding public office for five years.

He is currently in custody in a prison near the country’s capital, Islamabad, pending an appeal that began in the nation’s High Court on August 16.

Khan is currently in prison pending appeal over a corruption conviction. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

His lawyers have described the conviction as “without lawful authority, tainted with bias”, and said that the 70-year-old had not received an adequate hearing.

Social media was in outrage at Khan’s exclusion from the tribute, labelling it a political act.

Cricket journalist Farid Khan said it was “not cool”.

“1992 World Cup winner Imran Khan missing from this, no mention of him in the trophy / celebration pics too! Liked the video and then pressed the undo button,” Khan wrote.

“Not cool, guys.”

Sports journalist Rizwan Haider saw it as an affront to democratic ideals.

“One can have an idea from this post of PCB how democratic we are,” Haider wrote.

“Not a glimpse of World Cup winning captain Imran Khan in this video clip.”

Haider went on (in Urdu) to criticise the treatment of Khan, likening his disappearance in the video to the forthcoming disappearance of his vote in Pakistan’s upcoming elections.

Cricinfo writer Osman Samiuddin, joked it wouldn’t be possible to even celebrate Pakistani cricket without Khan.

“No way you can make a video celebration Pakistani cricket without the greatest Pakistani cricket ever,” Samiuddin wrote, swapping beer in his expression for a popular Pakistani soft drink.

“PCB: Hold my Pakola.”

Samiuddin’s Cricinfo colleague, Danyal Rasool, said the PCB’s video was impressive – in a way.

“Tales some special effort to get roasted on your own account by your own fans, on Independence Day, celebrating your own greatest cricketing achievements,” he wrote.

“But they’ve managed it with ease.”

Former Pakistan women’s captain Urooj Mumtaz Khan was incredulous at the omission.

“Reminiscing on Pakistan cricket’s history, 11 images of the 1992 World Cup win and not one pic or mention of the greatest that ever played the game for the country,” Khan wrote.

“Imran Khan will go down in history as one of the greats of the global game!”