Haris Rauf, Lahore Qalandar’s player development prodigy and now Pakistan’s ace bowler’s form has been on a decline recently. The speedster played fairly well in the World Cup, but his recent but short stint in the Pakistan Super League hasn’t been what fans were expecting. Now that the bowler is out of the League owing to a shoulder dislocation, the owner of Lahore Qalandars, Sameen Rana, has blamed the PCB for Haris Rauf’s thump in form. Here’s what he had to say.
Haris Rauf’s thump in Form: How things happened
The Pakistan Cricket Board started to become disenchanted with Haris Rauf when he refused to participate in the Pakistan tour of Australia for a series of three Tests. Coming fresh out of the World Cup, Rauf sought pardon from the series citing workload management.
This greatly unsettled the then-new management of the board. Wahab Riaz, who had recently taken over the role of Chief Selector expressed his apprehensiveness at the fast bowler’s decision. He mentioned that Haris Rauf was an important part of the series and the Board had assured him that he would not be forced to bowl more than 10-11 overs. Such few overs don’t cause injury which was Haris’ great concern, added Wahab.
A whole fiasco was created, one that pushed the right-hand bowler on the brink of resignation. Once the dust settled, the 30-year-old was even granted a NOC for the Big Bash League (BBL) in Australia. While everyone forgot what had happened, PCB didn’t, they wanted retribution.
Two days before the start of PSL 9, the Cricket Board issued a notification penalizing Haris Rauf’s central contract due to him pulling out of the Australia tour.
Lahore Qalandar’s Sameen Rana Blames PCB
Lahore Qalandars isn’t having the best season so far, and the owner has blamed PCB for this. According to Rana, the Board shouldn’t have announced their decisions so close to the mega event. And the way the news was delivered to the player, had a huge negative impact on him. Consequently, Rauf wasn’t able to bring forth his A-game in the tournament which, with a combination of other reasons, was why Qalandars haven’t won a single game out of seven they had played. He gave the following statements while talking about Haris Rauf’s thump in form
“The timing of that announcement was wholly unnecessary. There was no Pakistan series coming up, or any emergency situation that necessitated the announcement two days before the PSL. Whatever the logic was, the timing was really bad. It was a huge blow psychologically for him, because his whole life’s main aim was playing for Pakistan,”
“Rauf’s our premier bowler, our highest wicket-taker after Shaheen Afridi. To publicly humiliate him and issue a press release announcing the termination of his central contract, I have never seen this happen anywhere. I don’t know what the PCB was thinking; I was on the receiving end. If someone treats you like that, you can’t pretend it doesn’t affect you,”
Following Sameen’s comments on ESPN Cricinfo, the rumours have been that the bowler’s contract might get reinstated. Haris Rauf also filed for an appeal against the decision stating that his decision to not play Tests was only because of a lack of red-ball play and not because he prefers league cricket over national duties. An official statement regarding contract restoration is yet to come from the PCB. Talking about the statement, the Pakistan Cricket Board hasn’t offered Haris treatment for his dislocated shoulder yet. All is being done by his franchise, which raises a question, does the PCB even want Haris Rauf back in the national team?
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