Pakistan stars Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Rizwan have been barred from taking part in the President’s Trophy Grade-I, as a cyber-crime investigation into alleged dressing-room leaks throws a harsh spotlight on the national setup.
The first-class tournament begins on Saturday across four venues, but two of Pakistan’s most prominent cricketers will be watching from the sidelines until investigators finish their work.
Cyber-crime probe engulfs senior players
Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) questioned Imam and Rizwan in Lahore on Thursday after a complaint from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). The case centres on suspected leaks of information from the national team dressing room during Pakistan’s recent Test tour of England.
Both players were among seven men sent home after Pakistan lost the first two Tests of the three-match series. Five were dropped for purely cricketing reasons. Imam and Rizwan were different: the PCB made it clear they faced an internal inquiry.
That internal process has now escalated into a formal cyber-crime investigation.
According to Dawn, the pair spent around four hours at the NCCIA office, where they told investigators their mobile phones were already in the agency’s possession and could be subjected to forensic analysis. They also asked for more time to submit written explanations, a sign of how seriously the case is being treated on both sides of the table.
Domestic plans put on ice
The fallout has spilled straight into domestic cricket.
Imam had been named captain of the Oil and Gas Development Company side for the President’s Trophy. Rizwan was set to line up as vice-captain for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines. On paper, both were central figures in their teams’ campaigns.
Now they are not allowed to play at all until the investigation runs its course.
Even without the ban, neither man would have featured in the opening round, with Dawn reporting that both missed the mandatory fitness tests required before the competition. The disciplinary cloud, though, changes the entire complexion of their immediate futures: from leading roles in a key first-class event to enforced spectators.
Questions from Lord’s to Lahore
The scrutiny on Imam had already been building.
Earlier, national selector and PCB director of high performance Aaqib Javed confirmed that Imam would also face questioning over his failure to bat in either innings of the second Test against England at Lord’s, a match Pakistan lost by 194 runs. That absence, set against the backdrop of a struggling side and a high-profile tour, raised eyebrows inside the setup.
Now the questions are sharper, and they are no longer confined to cricketing decisions.
With phones in investigators’ hands, written statements pending, and two senior players frozen out of domestic action, Pakistan’s dressing room has rarely felt more exposed. The President’s Trophy will go on without them, but the real contest for Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Rizwan now lies far from the middle: clearing their names, and salvaging their place in a team under intense public and institutional glare.
