Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan cricketer Aamer Hanif’s son has committed suicide by hanging himself over ‘non-selection in an Under-19 cricket team.’ Mohammad Zaryab, who was a first-year college student and Hanif’s oldest son, killed himself on Monday. According to Hanif, who represented Pakistan in five ODIs during the 1990s, his son was upset after he was declared “too old” to be selected for the Under-19s. Zaryab had in January represented Karachi in an Under-19 tournament in Lahore, from where he was “sent home over an injury”. The teenager had resisted the move, but he was given an assurance that he would be selected again. However, he was rejected later on the grounds of being an “overage player”. Hanif said his son was ‘forced’ to commit suicide by coaches and people overseeing the affairs of Under-19 cricket in the country. “My son was pressurised… The coaches’ behaviour towards him forced him to kill himself,” said Hanif, as he pleaded for ‘other such sons to be saved’ from ‘such non-cooperative environment.’

Published in Daily Times, February 21^st 2018.