Najam Sethi asks Afghanistan to control crowd, players’ behaviour in Pakistan T20Is: Strict action will be taken

PCB chief Najam Sethi said that he had a chat with the ACB regarding crowd and players’ behaviour in the upcoming T20I series between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Last year, during the Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Fareed Ahmed and Asif Ali were involved in a heated exchange during a Super Four match at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.

After Pakistan won the match on the back of sixes from Naseem Shah, the crowd at the venue in Sharjah went berserk. Chairs were uprooted and thrown, after which former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar lashed out at the Afghan crowd foe their behaviour.

Ramiz Raja, the then PCB chairman, wasn’t happy and talked about raising the issue with the ICC. Sethi, in the meantime, was clear cut in saying that strict action would be taken against indifferent crowds and players’ behaviour.

“I had a chat with Afghanistan officials in Dubai about crowd control and their players’ behavior. What is the guarantee regarding managing your fans and players, because past experiences haven’t been good,” Sethi was quoted as saying.

“We told the Afghanistan Board to control their players. Winning and losing is part of the game. We have experience with regards to winning and losing, so we can control our emotions, but they are new to international cricket, so they need to keep their players in check,” he stated.

“There were two assurances given. UAE authorities have made a new plan, in which they will try their best that Pakistan fans and Afghanistan fans won’t sit together in the same stand,” Sethi added.

“In addition to that, strict action will be taken against rowdiness from people. There will be strict security in Sharjah,” he said.

Pakistan and Afghanistan will face each other in three T20Is from March 25 to 29 in Sharjah. Pakistan have already named their squad with Shadab Khan as their skipper. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Babar Azam have been rested.