ICC Champions Trophy 2025: PCB faces turmoil as Sindh accuses board of discrimination, threatens strong action

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is currently preparing for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 which will be hosted by Pakistan and Dubai. The board is under pressure due to the delayed preparation of stadiums for the marquee tournament.

However, the PCB has been dealt with another blow just before the Champions Trophy. Sardar Muhammad Bakhsh Mahar, who is Sindh's provincial sports minister, has accused the PCB of discriminating against the players of his province.

Also read: ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Gautam Gambhir openly threatens Pakistan ahead of IND vs PAK

Sindh Sports Minister accuses PCB of discrimination

While speaking at the opening of the provincial youth conference, Sardar Muhammad Bakhsh Mahar expressed deep concerns over the treatment of Sindh's players in the Pakistan cricket team. According to Express News, Mahar felt that the cricketers from this province were not given a chance in the national team.

He even went on to say that cricket is just not for players from Pakistan's northern provinces, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and has deep roots in Sindh as well. It is to be noted that Pakistan has four provinces - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan.

Mahar believes that Sindh had many talented players who had the ability to make it to the national team but were not given enough chances by the country's cricket board. As a result, they didn't play much despite enormous talent.

Muhammad Bakhsh Mahar further claimed that the players from Sindh didn't get a chance to be in the Playing XI even if they got selected in the squad. He claimed that those players were left "sitting in the dugout while others play". He voiced his concerns over such treatment and threatened to form another cricket board if the situation didn't get better.

Big surprises in the Pakistan squad

Meanwhile, Pakistan recently announced its squad for the Champions Trophy 2025 and became the last team among the participating nations to do so. The squad will be led by the wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan, under whom the team won the ODI series in Australia and South Africa.

The squad has four frontline pace bowling options and one seam-bowling allrounder in the form of Faheem Ashraf. In a big surprise, there is only one specialist spinner in the squad in the form of the legspinner Abrar Ahmed. Salman Ali Agha is the all-rounder who can chip in with off-spin bowling.

Fakhar Zaman returns to the team

Opener Fakhar Zaman returns to the team after a long time. He was dropped from the ODI team for indiscipline in which he slammed the PCB of a selection decision related to Babar Azam. However, Zaman finds his way back into the team after the injury to Saim Ayub.

Apart from Fakhar Zaman, Faheem Ashraf and Saud Shakeel are also returning to the team after a long time. Ashraf's last ODI was way back in Asia Cup 2023 while Shakeel had last played an ODI during the World Cup 2023.