Former Pakistan skipper Ramiz Raja has criticised the PCB for removing Shan Masood as the Test captain for the upcoming tours of West Indies and England. The PCB has reinstated Babar Azam as the skipper, something that hasn't gone down well with Raja, who is also a former cricket board chairman. Incidentally Babar led the national Test team from 2020 to 2023. “You give him an ordinary Test team and then expect him to produce good results,” Ramiz commented on his YouTube channel. He expressed concerns that Babar, who had replaced Shan as the Test captain for the coming tours of the Caribbean and England, would also face similar challenges. "If I had been in Shan's place, I would have submitted a written protest with the board that when a captain is consistently given a group of ordinary players consistently then how can you expect positive results?," Raja lashed out at PCB mandarins. “If the standard of the Test squad is not good, how is the captain only responsi...
After days of stalemate, the United States has confirmed that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will head to Pakistan on Saturday for a new round of talks with Iran.
"I can confirm Special Envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be off to Pakistan again tomorrow morning to engage in talks... with representatives from the Iranian delegation," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Friday.
Leavitt added that everyone will be on standby to fly to Pakistan if necessary, but first, these top aides will go there and report back on the situation to US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Steve Witkoff, the US Special Envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, have been central to the first round of talks held in Pakistan on April 11 and 12.
Both US Vice President JD Vance and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the leader of the Iranian negotiating team in the first round of talks, will notably be absent from the second round of talks.
This comes after Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced a "timely tour" to Pakistan, Oman and Russia focused on "bilateral matters and regional developments".
"Embarking on a timely tour of Islamabad, Muscat, and Moscow. The purpose of my visits is to closely coordinate with our partners on bilateral matters and consult on regional developments. Our neighbours are our priority", he wrote on X.
Earlier, Iran said that it won't hold talks until the US lifts its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, while the US side was demanding verifiable assurances that Tehran will end its nuclear programme and lift its own blockade of the strait.
At a Pentagon briefing on Friday, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said Trump had said the US “had all the time in the world and we are not anxious for a deal”.
He added that Iran had a chance to make a "good deal, a wise deal".
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/kZG04xC
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