Ramiz Raja did not respond to any of my calls during his tenure at PCB, reveals Wahab Riaz

12/29/2022

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Wahab Riaz has revealed how ignorant Ramiz Raja was during his tenure as PCB chairman. The 37-year-old left-arm quick, while highlighting he is still a present cricketer, mentioned he ‘had a lot of difficulties’ when Ramiz was in charge of PCB as he did not answer any of his phone calls.

Ramiz Raja was removed as the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday after Pakistan’s humiliating 0-3 whitewash against England at home. After his sacking, many cricketers came out to criticize the former PCB chairman after receiving not-so-good treatment during his stint, and Wahab Riaz, one of Pakistan’s star players at the 2011 ODI World Cup, is the latest to come forward.

“We had a lot of difficulties with the previous board. We were told things ‘You have no idea how difficult it is to adjust you, nobody would keep you in a team’. That made us feel as if we’ve some loorhay langhray (below-average) players who have never achieved anything in the game," Wahab said in an interview with Samaa News on Tuesday, as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.

Further, Wahab went on to say that he tried to connect with Raja multiple times to know about an update on his return to the national setup. However, the former PCB chairman never replied to him back, despite the fact that he is not retired from the international circuit.

“I’m a present cricketer, I have not retired. Why did he never answer me?” he questioned. “If people working under you aren’t happy, then that says a lot.”

Riaz, 37 now, last played a Test match for Pakistan in 2018, an ODI in November 2020, and a T20I in the last month of the same year.