The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is facing backlash from the netizens as they are expressing anguish after a wicketkeeper cum batter Azam Khan was fined by the board for expressing solidarity with Palestinians and pasting Gaza’s flag on his bat.

Azam Khan was fined 50% of the match fee in the national T20 tournament.

Talking to the Geo News, PCB has explained Azam Khan was fined for using an unapproved logo. Azam Khan was also forbidden by the match referee to put a sticker of the Palestinian flag on the bat but he refused to remove it and in response added that he had the same sticker on his all bats.

Under the Code of Conduct of the cricket board, players cannot place unapproved stickers on kits or equipment, and players cannot display religious or political message stickers during matches.

The match referee took action against Azam Khan for violating the code of conduct.

However, Azam Khan was fined for the act, but Legendary Rashid Latif and Dr Nauman Niaz appreciated Azam for his expression in their podcast.

Similarly, Azam’s act captured the attention of internet users who were not happy with PCB’s response. A user requested to boycott PCB until the issue not resolved.

Netizens are terming Azam’s act as ‘respectful’ and they believe that he won their heart with his support to Palestine for years.

Some shared the picture of the PCB logo with Israel and wrote “Sham on PCB”.

“First PCB forced Muhammad Rizwan to delete a tweet which was in favour of Gaza then they didn’t allow Azam to post anything now fined Azam Khan,” wrote an X user.