Following an unedited tweet and some kind of punishment for Mahesh Kumar a cricket player from Pakistan; A Cricket Player’s Expensive Fine and Controversial actions by The Pakistan Cricket Board made this incident one of the first major incidents in World Cricket that would turn out to be ‘the shot heard around the world’ & something bigger than just a tweet. There have been substantial amounts of protesting, writing letters to other people involved in sports concerning the incident, and will more than likely will end up being to have more repercussions for people in cricket moving forward. This entire situation may possibly set precedence or at least cause a ripple effect to have a negative impact on the cricket community around the world. We can expect that by continuing to throw large fines at our sports figures, we will also see larger fines thrown at everyone else as well.
Younis Khan’s comments hit the mark on a “classic” sports issue: how far does an organization take its accountability without crossing the line into taking excessive action? As reported by NDTV and The Tribune, Younis stated that the punishment given Shaheen Afridi was an excessive punishment that could have been avoided due to the apology that Shah had made (for the post) and that his social media manager caused the post to be posted. Younis said, “The PCB could have dealt with it through a warning and/or a less serious punishment and that these types of actions such as this are more likely to demoralize players than to provide them with direction “There should be no policing of players by the PCB, but rather the PCB should care for their players, and take care of them off the field,” a PCB source stated. The PCB is showing they are more concerned about players’ social media than they are about helping their players be professional athletes. After Shah tweeted, the PCB implemented much stricter social media guidelines for players, so all players, whether they be centrally or domestically contracted, and their social media managers, must now seek approval from the PCB prior to posting anything on social media.
According to the PCB policies there is a zero-Tolerance policy against political posting. Any players who post politically could incur a fine of Rs 10 million. The PCB has indicated that it will be treating these types of actions (such as this incident) as part of a pattern rather than as individual isolated incidents; therefore, this should serve as a warning to the whole dressing room for not allowing any other incident similar to this. The PCB’s message seems to be a clear line between how players express themselves on an individual basis and the ability of the PCB to enforce discipline within its organization.
This fighters timing makes it more sensitive; he made his tweet shortly after MARYAM BNWAZ MARYAM NAWAZ attended the opening match of the PAKISTAN Super league (PSL), on March 27, at GADDAFI stadium in LAHORE; this was already attracting media attention (due to the political/sporting significance surrounding the PSL). Shortly thereafter the PCB imposed disciplinary action on him; therefore the fastness of its decision has increased discussion about whether the PCB acted decisively or haphazardly. For those who opposed the PCB’s punishment there is no disagreement that cricketers should be held accountable but simply that the punishment was too harsh and/or there wasn’t enough public exposure of problematic behaviour…
Younis Khan’s involvement alters the context of this dispute from an issue of unintentional postings to one about leadership. He did not dispute an incorrect posting as such but instead disagreed with the board’s tendency to reprimand players publicly and not reflect. In fact, he suggested that if public scrutiny and condemnation are a regular part of the cricketing experience, then you should punish selectors and administrators who misrepresent or fail to perform their jobs just as you would punish players who misrepresent or fail to perform their jobs. This statement moves the conversation from a discussion of an individual’s mistake to a discussion of the structure of governance of Pakistan cricket itself. Currently, the PCB’s approach has been to punish first, whereas Younis has advocated for discretion. Between the two extremes is the larger question of how can a cricket board punish its superstars appropriately without creating a rift between the cricketers and the governing body.
