Cricket Australia issues clarification after racial slur appears on scorecard during Pakistan’s warm-up match

A controversy erupted during the opening day of Pakistan’s four-day warm-up match against the Prime Minister’s XI at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on Wednesday after a racial slur appeared on the game scorecard. The ticker displayed the term ‘P**I’ instead of PAK. ‘P**I’ is an offensive term for people of South Asian descent.

Australian journalist Danny Saeed spotted the same and took to his XI handle to post about it.

“The choice to run with “P**I” on the Fox ticker over the traditional “PAK” is…quite a choice,” he wrote.

Saeed, later, also shared the clarification received from Cricket Australia (CA) over the controversy.

Sharing CA’s statement on the matter, he posted:

“The graphic was an automatic feed from a data provider which had not been used previously for a Pakistan game. This was obviously regrettable, and the error we corrected manually as soon as it came to light.”

Pakistan are in Australia for a three-match Test series, which will be played from December 14 to January 7. The first Test will be played in Perth, the second in Melbourne, and the third in Sydney.

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Pakistan impress on Day 1 of the warm-up match

Speaking of the match, Pakistan impressed on Day 1 with the bat, reaching 324/6 by stumps. Shan Masood was unbeaten on 156 at close of the opening day’s play. Abdullah Shafique (38), Babar Azam (40), and Sarfaraz Ahmed (41) got started, but could not carry on.

On Day 2 of the warm-up match in Canberra, Masood went on to complete his double hundred and remained unbeaten on 201 off 298 balls, striking 14 fours and a six. Pakistan declared their first innings on 391/9 in 116.2 overs. For the Prime Minister’s XI, Jordan Buckingham stood out with figures of 5/80 in 23 overs.

Responding to Pakistan’s first-innings total of 391/9 declared, Prime Minister's XI reached 72/0 after 27 overs at Tea on Day 2 of the contest. Cameron Bancroft was batting on 35 off 83 balls and Marcus Harris on 34 off 79.

Prime Minister's XI were trailing Pakistan by 319 runs with all 10 wickets in hand.