LAHORE: Pakistan have suffered a big blow ahead of a crucial pool match against the Netherlands in the ongoing World Cup in India, as captain Mohammad Rizwan Senior and vice-captain Ammad Butt will not be available for the said match for different reasons.

The last pool ‘C’ match of both the teams will be played on Sunday.

Rizwan fractured his little finger in Pakistan’s second pool match against Malaysia on Wednesday while Ammad was banned for one match for a harsh dashing during the game against Malaysia.

In a video clip, Pakistan team manager Hasan Sardar said it was unfortunate that Rizwan would not play against Dutch. But he said he had appealed against the ban, claiming because it was a biased decision.

“As there are 25 cameras functioning [during a match], anyone can easily guess Ammad did nothing wrong in stopping the ball as he also saved the opponent player from [potential] injury. Moreover, the field umpire neither gave any foul nor showed any card to Ammad on the occasion. But a Dutch delegate announced the decision, which seems biased because Pakistan is going to play the next match [in the World Cup] against the Netherlands,” Hasan said in the video clip.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2018