World Cup 2023: Babar Azam's leaked WhatsApp chats trigger controversy

The list of woes for Pakistan cricket seems to have no end as a controversy surrounding Babar Azam's leaked chats on a Television channel in Pakistan is making rounds.

Hyderabad: Babar Azam's recent leaked WhatsApp chats with the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) Chief Operating Officer (COO), Salman Naseer has sparked a massive controversy drawing a lot of criticism on social media surrounding privacy breaches and ethical missteps from the PCB.

Pakistan cricket team is already in shambles with the kind of performance they have displayed in the marquee tournament. The Men in Green have lost four matches on the trot in the tournament and their chances to make it to the semi-final are almost nil. Courtesy of poor performance from Pakistan, Babar Azam's captaincy has been under the radar. However, a tumultuous turn of events has opened up controversy around the code of conduct by PCB.

Earlier, some reports were going around that the Pakistan cricket players were not paid a salary for a span of a few months. Also, it was an alleged development that Babar Azam was trying to contact the PCB chief Zaka Ashraf but the latter had dismissed such claims. Subsequently, the chats between Babar and PCB COO, Salman Naseer were leaked by a Pakistan TV channel where the latter was asking the Pakistan skipper whether he had tried to call Zaka. Babar was seen denying it in the chat.

In the aftermath of the leaked chats, former Pakistan cricketer Azhar Ali questioned the lack of consent while making such chats public on the same show. Also, former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis had tweeted while condemning the act.

Although the host of the talk show, Waseem Badami released a video on X asking for an apology, he also mentioned that Zaka had told him to make the chat public.