Former Pakistan cricket team skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed has refuted rumours claiming that he has migrated to the United Kingdom following a disappointing show in the Test series against Australia. Sarfaraz made a sensational return to the Test squad but single digit scores in both innings resulted in the 36-year-old getting dropped for all the other matches. Media reports claimed that following the snub, Sarfaraz has moved to the UK along with his wife and kids. However, in an interview with Samaa Digital, Sarfaraz said that he cannot even think about leaving Pakistan and slammed the ‘fabricated’ media reports.

“I can’t even think of leaving Pakistan. Confirm before running such fabricated news,” he said.

“Sad to see such news.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan cricket chief Zaka Ashraf resigned on Friday citing lack of powers to administer the board, meaning a fourth change will come into force in 13 months.

A ten-man management committee took over the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after former captain Ramiz Raja was sacked as chairman in December 2022.

In June last year, Ashraf was appointed as committee’s head, replacing Najam Sethi, and was given the task of organising an election for the PCB chairman before February 4 this year.

Ashraf left the post after a management committee meeting in Lahore on Friday.

“We can’t work with our hands tied, so I am resigning from the post,” Ashraf told local media. “I wanted to do work for the betterment of cricket in Pakistan.”

Local media reported that Ashraf was allowed to manage only day-to-day affairs by the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee — which looks after the affairs of sports in Pakistan.

Both Ashraf and Sethi had previously both resigned as PCB chairman over political backing.

(With AFP inputs)