Players can celebrate whichever way they want to: PCB Chairman Najam Sethi

PakistanToday

8 years ago

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi on Wednesday clarified that the celebrations were done at the discretion of players over PCB’s reservations regarding cricket players doing push-ups to celebrate victories during matches.

1/2 Sajda/pushups etc done @ discretion of players. PCB highly appreciates fitness training facilities of PakArmy, utilised thrice in 6 yrs

— Najam Sethi (@najamsethi) October 26, 2016

#2/2 Media should refrain from politicising Pak cricket team!

— Najam Sethi (@najamsethi) October 26, 2016

However, the statement contradicts Sethi’s reported assurances to the parliamentary committee in which he said the practice was limited to the England tour and would not happen again.

Sethi’s revelation came as lawmakers raised questions during a meeting of the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee over the cricket team performing push-ups after victory in international matches.

Sethi also went on to add that the media should refrain from politicising the country’s national cricket team. He also appreciated the Pakistan Army for providing fitness training facilities to the PCB.

However, the PML-N MNA said cricket is “a gentleman’s game” and the act of doing push-ups does not reflect the calibre of the sport. “Push-up celebration promotes a negative image of Pakistan and needs to be revisited,” Khan said.

To this, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official Najam Sethi assured that players no longer celebrate victories with push-ups. “It only happened during the England tour and won’t happen again,” Sethi said.

The trend was started by Test captain Misbahul Haq, who performed push-ups at Lord’s after his first ton of English soil.