Haider left a puzzling status update on his Facebook page yesterday.

“Leaving Pakistan cricket because get bad msg fr 1 man fr lose the match in last game”.

I was slightly flummoxed by its meaning, but I believe it can be assumed that ‘fr’ number one should read ‘from’ and ‘fr’ number two should read ‘for’. This would imply that somebody (‘1 man’) had aimed a threatening message at Haiter (a threat which is also believed to include his family), because of something that happened during the last game (presumed to be the fourth ODI in the series against the Proteas). He is not the first cricketer to provoke media attention through social media, as we all remember  KP’s tweet-jab at the ECB a few months back. Incidentally Haiter has been involved in a few controversies before, including his infamous breach of team curfew.

Haider was instrumental in guiding the hosts to a narrow victory in the fourth ODI with an unbeaten 19. While the standard of his English gives the status a slightly enigmatic tone, it can only be assumed that he fled Dubai to seek asylum from corruption, spot-fixing or bribery (which, let’s face it, isn’t new to Pakistan cricket). There is also conjecture about tension within the Pakistan squad that he found unnerving.

The sport has always been lauded as the “gentleman’s game”, but a flurry of controversial stories in South Africa and abroad over the past few weeks have certainly made for some intriguing reading. We have become so accustomed to the plethora of cliches regurgitated by cricket captains and coaches through the press. Complete with spot-fixing and finger-pointing autobiographies cricket has certainly tried to rid itself of the tireless “Ja, we’re gonna have a bat first and post a big total” reputation.

[Cricinfo]

Image via Gulfnews