PCB bans players from push-up celebration

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The Pakistan Cricket Board has cowed to pressure from a ruling party politician and barred its players from performing push-ups to celebrate on-field achievements.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Rana Afzal Khan raised the matter in a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Sports earlier this week.

Khan said the players should perform prayers or do sajdas (prostrate themselves facing Mecca)  rather than push-ups.

He called cricket ‘a gentleman’s game’ and believes the act of doing push-ups does not reflect the stature of the sport.

Khan said: “Push-up celebration promotes a negative image of Pakistan and needs to be revisited.”

PCB official Najam Sethi, a close personal friend of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, has responded by issuing an order to players not to do push-ups.

Sethi “It only happened during the England tour and won’t happen again.

The celebration was first performed by Misbah-ul-Haq after scoring a century against England in July and the entire team did push-ups after winning at Lord’s.

Government interference has been a problem plaguing Pakistan cricket for a number of years and while this is an innocuous issue it is symptomatic of an underlying problem with the PCB and the Pakistan government.

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