Ehsan Mani refutes claims that Imran Khan played a role in the sacking of Sarfaraz Ahmed

Former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ehsan Mani has refuted media claims that former Prime Minister and PCB's patron-in-chief played a major role in the sacking of former captain Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Mani opened up about the decision to sack Sarfaraz and replace him with Mohammad Rizwan, stating that the decision was based purely on merit. 

"There was not even a single instance where Imran interfered in PCB matters, and all the decisions were based on merits. Take the example of Sarfaraz; his performances were dropping, and removing him from captaincy was not taken by Imran at all. We replaced Sarfaraz with Rizwan, who has been phenomenal from the get-go," he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.

For the uninitiated, Sarfaraz, who led Pakistan in all three formats between 2017-19, was not only sacked from leadership duties but also dumped from the squad in September 2019.

He was replaced by Babar Azam as white-ball skipper, while Azhar Ali was appointed Test captain.

One year later, Azhar relinquished the post following humiliating defeats in Australia and England, and Babar was appointed as his successor.

As for Sarfaraz, the wicketkeeper-batter guided his team to the No.1 ranking in the shortest format during his tenure before leading them to the Champions Trophy triumph at the expense of archrival India.

However, his own form and the performance of the ODI and Test team in 2018-19 deteriorated massively. While the breaking point finally came when a second string Sri Lankan team whitewashed a full-strength team under him in a T20I series on home soil.

Sarfaraz continues to remain on the fringes since then as Mohammad Rizwan has gone on to establish himself as a run-machine.

Ahmed captained Pakistan in 140 games across formats, winning 86 and losing 53.