It took a phone call and strict orders from PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan to the manager of the World Cup squad before wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed was finally given a chance to play in the tournament.
Sarfraz's late selection for the World Cup matches became a major talking point in Pakistan during the tournament.
A well-informed source close to the PCB chairman told PTI today that after head coach Waqar Younis and captain Misbah-ul-Haq had stubbornly refused to play Sarfraz in the first four matches of the World Cup, Shaharyar lost his cool and called up manager Naved Akram Cheema.
"Shaharyar made it clear to Cheema that there was no justification for not playing Sarfraz after the continued failures of opener Nasir Jamshed and the matter was turning into a political one," the source disclosed.
"Shaharyar made it clear there was a strong feeling growing at home that Sarfraz's continued ouster had something to do with the old Karachi-Lahore rivalry in cricket and it could snowball into a major issue," the source revealed.
"Although Waqar and Misbah have given the impression that they finally decided to give Sarfraz a chance purely on cricketing requirements in fact it was Shaharyar who told Cheema in clear terms that it was an order that the wicketkeeper be played in the next match," the source said.
Sarfraz caused embarrassment for the captain and coach, when in his first appearance of the tournament against South Africa he scored 49 as an opener and took five catches to win the man-of-the-match award.
In his next match against Ireland he scored a hundred to again scoop up the player-of-the-match prize.
Before he was played, Waqar and Misbah had insisted on playing Umar Akmal as a make-shift keeper and tried to justify keeping out the regular gloveman out by saying that he had failed with the bat in the matches leading up to the World Cup and didn't appear comfortable on pitches in New Zealand and Australia.
