Table of Contents
- Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan reject lucrative offers from illegal betting companies, taking a principled stand.
- PCB’s partnership with surrogate betting sponsors like Dafa News raises concerns of unauthorized betting sites operating in Pakistan.
- PCB assigns image rights of players to betting companies without their consent, sparking controversy in the cricketing community.
Pakistan’s cricket captain, Babar Azam, and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan have demonstrated their integrity by rejecting substantial financial offers from illegal betting companies. Despite the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) partnering with surrogate betting sponsors like Dafa News, the two players turned down multi-million rupee contracts, as documented emails obtained by The News have revealed.
The PCB’s association with Dafa News has raised concerns, with over 150 illegal surrogate betting sites and apps infiltrating the Pakistani digital landscape. Additionally, it has allegedly led some Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises to coerce players into endorsing these illegal betting companies by featuring logos on their kits and granting image rights.
Babar Azam received a Rs250 million yearly contract offer from 1XBET, while Rizwan rejected a Rs100 million yearly contract from a surrogate betting company. Their principled stance against such sponsorships aligns with their beliefs, as they conveyed through their representatives. They made it clear that they do not support betting or surrogate betting brands.
PCB assigned Babar and Rizwan’s image’s rights without permission to betting companies
Furthermore, the PCB has assigned the image rights of Babar and Rizwan to these betting companies without their consent. The source shared digital media ads from 1XBET featuring the players, seemingly against their will and purportedly due to the image rights permissions granted as part of their sponsorship to the PCB and PSL franchises.
In addition to the players, some PSL franchises have enforced the placement of surrogate betting company logos on players’ attire, raising concerns about freedom of speech and player rights.
The PCB’s own code of conduct strictly prohibits any association with betting and related activities. However, the PCB’s spokesperson insists that Dafa News is merely a news organization and denies any common ownership stake with a betting concern, despite the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting categorizing it as a surrogate betting company.
Although there have been allegations against these companies, they have not been validated in a court of law. The government has cracked down on surrogate betting companies, causing significant economic losses to the nation, but as of now, these betting applications continue to operate without significant action taken by the authorities.
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