Ahmed Shehzad quits PSL, blames ‘deliberate effort’ keep him out

LAHORE: Ahmed Shehzad has retired from the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in a blaze of fury after he was not picked in the draft for the ninth edition of the tournament.

In a post, he blamed a “deliberate effort” by all six franchises to keep him out of the competition, saying that he knew “exactly the reasons why I’m not made part of the PSL”, and the was leaving to keep his self-respect intact.

Shehzad claimed he had been offered money to participate in leagues around the world but he opted to stay in the domestic circuit.

Expressing his disillusionment with Pakistan cricket, he said patriotism “goes against you”,  pointedly suggesting other players, unlike him, had taken up lucrative league contracts around the globe.

“I have tried really hard in domestic cricket consistently in the last few years, and did reasonably well in the National T20 Cup just before the PSL draft. There seems a deliberate effort to keep me out, even when franchises have opted for other performers with inferior numbers than me,” he said.

“But when everything is pre-planned it doesn’t really matter. I don’t know whose responsibility it is to get top domestic performers in the PSL then.”

Shehzad, 32, last played in the PSL in 2020, primarily representing Quetta Gladiators with whom he won the title in 2019, scoring a half-century in that final.

He had a poor tournament in 2020, scoring 61 runs in seven innings, and did not play again. He scored 1077 runs in 45 PSL matches at a strike rate of 120.06, and was the first Pakistani to score a hundred in T20I cricket.

There has been a recent push on social media to include Shehzad in more high-profile tournaments. He had a decent National T20 Cup, with 344 runs at 133.33, but could find no takers at the PSL draft on December 13.

A heartfelt goodbye! pic.twitter.com/7NdjpCXjeR

— Ahmad Shahzad 🇵🇰 (@iamAhmadshahzad) December 15, 2023