The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has rubbished “baseless” reports of pacer Salman Mirza misbehaving with a woman at the team’s Kandy hotel during T20 World Cup 2026.
PCB’s response comes in the aftermath of Pakistan-based ARY airing a news story stating that Saman had been fined for harassing a woman. The PCB said that legal action would be taken against ARY news for airing “misleading information”.
What PCB said in their statement
“The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has taken serious notice of baseless and fake tickers aired by ARY News regarding a Pakistani left-arm fast bowler. The PCB strongly condemns the broadcast of such unverified and misleading information and views this act as malicious and irresponsible,” the PCB said in a statement.
“The PCB reserves the right to take appropriate action against those involved in spreading false news,” the statement added.
Salman Mirza, too, took to Instagram to slam the reports.
“A absurd News is circulating on media and I strongly condemn this sort of Cheap Journalism. Any Media House can’t air any unverified news #PakistanCricketBoard has already denied this Baseless & Fake News and i’m going to take Legal Action against #ShahidHashmi (Journalist) who works for ARY NEWS this sort of Flithy reporting must be banned and #GovernmentofPakistan must take action against such people!,” he wrote on his Instagram story.
Earlier, a report in Telecom Asia Sport had claimed that an unnamed Pakistani player had been fined for misbehaving with a female hotel staff member in Kandy.
According to the report, the incident had taken place ahead of Pakistan’s last Super 8 match against Sri Lanka that took place in Pallekele. The report said that this prompted the female employee to raise an alarm, leading the hotel staff to intervene and take some action.
“Before Pakistan’s last Super Eight match against Sri Lanka, a Pakistan World Cup squad player misbehaved with a female housekeeping staff member,” sources were quoted as saying by Telecom Asia Sport.
“The staff shouted and called for help, at which the hotel staff came to her rescue and reported the matter to Pakistan team manager Navaid Cheema,” added the report.
“The top management of Golden Crown Hotel wanted the matter to be dealt with strongly, but Cheema apologized on behalf of the player and fined him for misbehaviour,” the report further stated.
Pakistan backroom and staff members have been in trouble over misconduct allegations in the past. In 2025, the Manchester Police had arrested batter Haider Ali over charges of raping a girl, while on tour with Pakistan Shaheens. However, Haider was later released due to a lack of evidence.
In another incident a few years ago, Pakistan masseur Malang Ali was also fined for misbehaving with a female staff member while on tour in Malaysia.
Pakistan qualified for the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup after finishing second in Group A that included India. Their only defeat in the group stage in fact came against India in Colombo. However, their Super 8 campaign went downhill.
They were forced to share a point each after their match against New Zealand was washed out due to rain in Colombo. The Men in Green then suffered a two-wicket loss to England, and New Zealand’s win over Sri Lanka meant that Pakistan had to beat Sri Lanka by a big margin. However, the Salman Agha-led side only managed to beat Sri Lanka by five runs.
