Crickеt Australia acknowledged a mistake in their live score ticker during Pakistan’s tour match in Canberra, where a racist term was inadvertently displayed.
Pakistan is presently touring Australia for a series of three Test matches, forming part of the 2023-25 World Test Championship and the Benaud-Qadir Trophy.
Ahead of the series, they engaged in a tour game against the Australian Prime Minister’s XI at Manuka Oval.
In this match, Shan Masood, the new captain for Pakistan, won the toss and opted to bat first, with Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq opening the innings.
The live broadcast featured a ticker displaying the home side as PMXI and the visiting team as ‘PAK-I’. This depiction, using the four-letter word P***, is offensive to people of Pakistani and broader South Asian descent.
The term is offensive in many regions, and it’s classified as such in the Oxford Dictionary.
Australian cricket journalist Danny Saeed highlighted this issue, prompting Cricket Australia to swiftly rectify the display to simply ‘PAK’.
Crickеt Australia stated, “The graphic was an automatic feed from a data provider not previously used for a Pakistan game. This was regrettable, and the error was manually corrected as soon as discovered.”
Shan Masood performed exceptionally on the opening day, scoring an unbeaten century, and guiding his team to 324-6 at the stumps on Wednesday.
Masood hit 156 runs in 235 balls, including 13 fours and a six. Although Pakistan lost opener Imam-ul-Haq early, Abdullah Shafique and Masood put up 58 runs before Shafique was dismissed after scoring 38 runs.
Babar Azam, who followed Shafique’s dismissal, contributed 40 runs in 88 balls with five fours, partnering with Masood for a crucial 92-run stand. Wicketkeeper-batter Sarfaraz Ahmed also played an aggressive innings of 41 runs in 47 balls, including six fours.
Saud Shakeel and Faheem Ashraf scored 13 and 17 runs respectively, while Jordan Buckingham was the standout bowler for the home side with figures of 3-63 in 17 overs.