PCB apologises for its insensitive tweet after Sarfaraz's removal

• The tweet contained a GIF of Fakhar Zaman dancing with other players while Sarfaraz is seen leaving the field.
• PCB said the tweet was a pre-planned post as part of promotional campaign for T20 World Cup.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has apologised for its insensitive tweet on Friday, which was posted just minutes after its announcement that wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed would no longer serve as captain in Test and T20I format.

“The PCB apologies for this post and accept the timing of it was wrong,” the PCB tweeted. “This was a pre-planned post as part of the one-year to go T20 World Cup promotional campaign. The timing of this post clashed with the captaincy announcement for which the PCB offers its regrets,” added PCB.

The PCB apologies for this post and accepts the timing of it was wrong. This was a pre-planned post as part of the one-year to go #T20WorldCup promotional campaign. The timing of this post clashed with the captaincy announcement for which the PCB offers its regrets.

— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) 18 October 2019

The tweet contained a GIF of batsman Fakhar Zaman dancing along with other players, while Sarfaraz is seen leaving the field.

The PCB has appointed Azhar Ali as national cricket team captain for Pakistan’s World Test Championship matches in the 2019-20 season. Meanwhile, Babar Azam has been named captain of the No.1 ranked T20I side until next year’s ICC T20 World Cup Australia 2020, which is now exactly one year away.

Whereas, the decision on vice-captaincy will be made closer to the series, whilst captaincy for the ODIs will be finalised in due course as the national team’s next assignment is scheduled from July 4 to July 9 next year against the Netherlands in Amstelveen.