Karachi: Pakistan chief selector Moen Khan, ordered back home from the Cricket World Cup following a visit to a casino, avoided running into an angry group of youths after he was ushered out of Karachi Airport on Thursday.
The former Test captain slipped away quietly into a waiting car as the angry youngsters stood outside the airport armed with banners and eggs.
Television pictures showed some of the youngsters smashing the eggs on their heads in anger after learning Moen had left by a side entrance.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recalled Moen following his visit to a Christchurch casino on the eve of the team’s match against West Indies.
The PCB is to hold crisis talks with him this weekend.
“I went to the casino to have dinner with some friends. But in hindsight it was an inappropriate judgment on my part given the disappointment in the team’s performance in the World Cup,” Moen, who won the World Cup with Pakistan in 1992, told a local television channel.
“I apologise to the people for my action and I never realised my action would have such serious repercussions.”
Gambling and alcohol consumption is prohibited in Pakistan and some critics and former Test players have questioned why Moen opted to go to the casino.
“He has brought shame to Pakistan cricket and he should be blacklisted from Pakistan cricket,” former Test player Sarfraz Nawaz told reporters in Lahore.
Pakistan have so far suffered a torrid time at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, losing both of their matches to date to India and West Indies. They are bottom of the seven-team Pool B, which includes non-Test-playing nations such as Ireland and the UAE.
