Fans lashed out at Pakistan Sports Board (PCB) for inviting 132 Indians to manage the opening ceremony of Pakistan Super League in the fifth edition.
Social media users expressed anguish over PCB under the Twitter hashtag ‘PCB Jawab Do’ for hiring foreign officials from India over local professionals and organizers. They lambasted the sports authority for preferring Indians when they slashed a ban on the Pakistani artists working in India’s entertainment industry, and above all, reminded the board about India’s hostility towards Pakistan.
We need a reply #PCBJawabDo , open ceremony k liya why Indian? Why they will make Pakìstan look big on international scene ? @ImranKhanPTI @TheRealPCB @ArifAlvi sharam karo indian k sath selfies , why u r so accessible for Indians? pic.twitter.com/ge2VUZkAQ5
— Waqar Zaka (@ZakaWaqar) February 22, 2020
Waqar Zaka even released a video on YouTube, slammed PCB for not giving jobs to deserving people from Pakistan and hiring Indian officials for one of the biggest events in Pakistan-the opening ceremony of the most-awaited cricket tournament in Pakistan, PSL.
According to reports, Indian Shubra Bharadwaj, directed the opening ceremony of PSL 5.
Moreover, despite hiring foreign officials, the opening ceremony turned out to be a sheer disappointment-marred with mismanagement and chaos.
Read more: Botched PSL 5 opening ceremony: Host harassed, Ali Azmat and Haroon offended
A list of the Indians part of the production company of the opening ceremony of PSL circulated on social media. These Indian professionals took important positions in the production team.
#PCBJawabDo#PMImranKhan
What the hell is going on…. pic.twitter.com/mjKlTL4sag— Majid Saeed (@MajidSaeedakbar) February 24, 2020
The fifth edition of Pakistan Super League kicked off on Thursday last week with a highly-anticipated opening ceremony that turned into a botched event following a spree of unforgivable technical errors, dysfunctional system and administration flaws that dampened the excitement of the entire event.
Numerous controversies followed the opening ceremony of PSL 5, tainting the conduct of PCB. Ahmed Godil, the host of PSL 5 opening ceremony, received a massive backlash to the extremes of being harassed by people on social media.
Godil said, hecklers, leaked his number, and now he is bullied, receiving offensive messages on his phone and social media accounts. He defended himself on a morning show at Samaa TV and asked people what has he done wrong to receive such outrageous feedback.
https://twitter.com/haiderniazi99/status/1231504742335029248?s=20
On the other hand, singer Ali Azmat also criticized PCB for a botched opening ceremony. Ali Azmat lashed out at the organizers for mismanaged events that led to a disorganized show. In conversation with the anchorperson, Waseem Badami, Ali Azmat expressed sheer annoyance on cutting down their performance on the PSL 5 anthem ‘Tayyar Hain’.
He said a lot of performers left the stadium in angst including Haroon. He said it was a surprising move from the organizers to shorten their performance and management did not inform them before cutting short the PSL 5 anthem due to time constraints.
Ali Azmat said the PSL 5 ceremony was planned according to the TV audience while there was ultimate chaos in the stadium. He said we rehearsed for two days yet we were clueless at the time of our performance.
https://twitter.com/fahadimtiazz/status/1231827632079151104?s=20
PCB, however, has not yet commented on the controversy neither on the claims of Ahmed Godil from him for his job.