Tanvir urges fellow Pakistan cricketers to use social media responsibly

Karachi: Pakistan's T20 specialist Sohail Tanvir is upset with the irresponsible use of social media by some of his fellow players.

"I think that our former and current players need to be very thoughtful and sensible while using the social media because we could all end up only giving off a negative impression of Pakistan cricket," Tanvir said in an interview on Friday.

"I think former and current players need to be more responsible on social media." He said remarks made on social media at times can prove to be embarrassing for the players and also for Pakistan cricket.

A Twitter spat between former Pakistan players Danish Kaneria and Faisal Iqbal with both running each other down and acerbic comments by former Pakistan captain Muhammad Yousuf about the national team head coach and chief selector, Misbah-ul-Haq, have been some of the happenings on social media which has led to controversy.

Even former officials of the Pakistan Cricket Board are not immune from this trend with at least one former head claiming some players under-performed in the 2003 World Cup and he asked the chief selector to drop stalwarts like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Saeed Anwar.

One former Chairman felt that Pakistan board had never taken the issue of match and spot-fixing seriously enough.

Tanvir, a left arm pacer who has appeared in two Tests, 62 ODIs and 57 T20 Internationals, said the onus was on the players themselves on how they wanted to use the social media.

He said it was unfortunate that some cricketers are using the social media platforms to have a go at each other disregarding the fact that the players are all part of one family.

"A thoughtless comment or remark can cause embarrassment for the user and otherwise when they meet each other the next time. I would suggest that they don't say things on social media which they wouldn't say face to face or which they wouldn't like others to say about them."