Mani slams Sarfraz’s ban

KARACHI: Bureaucracy beat out common sense in the ICC’s punishment of Sarfaraz Ahmed. That is the pithy assessment of Ehsan Mani, the PCB chairman, who believes the governing body need not have charged Sarfraz once apologies had been publicly made and accepted.

Sarfraz was handed a four-match ban by the ICC for a breach of the Anti-Racism code, bringing an end to a saga that began with a taunt of Andile Phehlukwayo during the second ODI in Durban that included a racial element.

To some surprise, the PCB expressed its disappointment with the decision to charge Sarfaraz, but Mani expanded on the circumstances behind the sentiment. Sarfraz had apologised publicly several times in the aftermath, and eventually face-to-face to Phehlukwayo. Apologies, Mani said, had been conveyed publicly, at board level, at the manager’s level as well as by the player.

The PCB were also unhappy about the time it took to charge Sarfraz, a period in which the issue festered and indeed the two teams - Pakistan still led by Sarfaraz - played the third ODI. The incident took place on Tuesday and Sarfaraz wasn’t charged until Saturday night. His punishment was made public not by the ICC but by Faf du Plessis at the toss for the fourth ODI on Sunday. Part of the reason it took that long, however, is because it is a formal legal process, involving a number of parties taking decisions on a serious matter.

“This is my issue that they sat on it,” Mani said. “Our statements and apologies were public. This is not something you brush under the table, it has to be dealt with openly and transparently. We did all of that. But because ICC couldn’t get the two players in a room together, they said let’s charge him. And that to my mind is utter nonsense. “Why this bureaucratic process that it didn’t go exactly according to the book in terms of reconciliation with an ICC mediator? We don’t need an ICC mediator. So very seriously, we will push on this because somewhere common sense was overruled by bureaucratic process.”

Mani didn’t play down the seriousness of the incident and is planning to speak to Sarfraz. The incident has sparked off speculation about the future of Sarfraz’s captaincy and though the line is - as it has been for a while - that the captain remains a series by series appointment, Mani said it was “too soon” to think about that.