A day after reports circulated in the media that former Pakistan international Rashid Latif has shown interest in inviting global cricketing icon Virat Kohli for a cricket league – to be held in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir – the former stumper clarified he did not make those comments and it was in fact his boss, Arif Malik, who has initiated this talk.
Speaking on a Youtube channel, Latif said, “Yeh meine baat nahi ki, Virat Kohli wali baat. Hamare jo boss hai, Arif Malik saab, ne kal ek show men yeh baat ki. Ki invite karenge woh Virat Kohli; ko aur waha pe who aaye na aaye unki marzi hai, lekin initate [initiative] unhone liya hai, unki soch hai woh. Lekin yeh mere quote nahi hai (I did not comment on Virat Kohli. That was done by my boss Arif Malik in a show yesterday that he is keen to invite Kohli for the tournament. Whether he comes or not, is up to him, but it was Malik’s initiative, his thinking; and I did not have anything to do with it),” said the 53-year-old, who was recently appointed as the Director of Operations for the league set to be held in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
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The tournament president Malik had earlier said, “We should send an invitation to Virat Kohli but the decision to play lies with the player,” said Latif while in communication with Dawn News. “I had also advised [Najam] Sethi to send invitations to all cricket boards including BCCI for PSL.
We have a clear cut message for across the border. We want to do everything peacefully and keeping that in mind, we are writing a letter to Virat Kohli. He is one of the great players and now even players like Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi are in the ICC rankings. When we talk about peace, all the guys should be on the same page,” Malik said on Facebook.
“We recently saw that [Mohammad] Rizwan gave a very positive message that cricket should be beyond everything. Which is why we are writing a letter to Virat Kohli. Either he can come and play or at least attend one or two matches. It is up to him whether he wants to be a part of the tournament as a player or as a chief guest. We want to bring people of both sides together so that we can spread the message of peace.”
The tournament is set to kick off on August 1 whereas the final will be played on August 14.
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