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Cricketer Wahab Riaz has been appointed as Punjab's interim sports minister. Wahab Riaz, Pakistan's star pacer, was named caretaker sports minister of Punjab on Thursday.
The newly-appointed cabinet members were sworn in at the Governor's House in Lahore by Governor Baligh Ur Rehman.
Eight of the 11 cabinet members took the oath, including Bilal Afzal, SM Tanveer, Dr Javed Akram, Ibrahim Murad, Dr Jamal Nasir, Mansoor Qadir, Syed Azfar Ali Nasir, and Amir Mir, while three others, Wahab Riaz, Tamkinat Karim, and Naseem Sadiq, were unable to attend.
Wahab, who is currently playing for Khulna Tigers in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2023, confirmed to Geosuper.tv that he will take over as the largest province's sports minister in due course.
In 156 international games across all formats, the left-arm bowler has taken 237 wickets for Pakistan. It is worth noting that the 37-year-old bowler was a member of the national team that won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017.
The star pacer took an indefinite break from red-ball cricket in 2019.
"After reviewing my previous couple of years' performances in red-ball cricket and the upcoming limited-overs cricket," Riaz explained, "I have decided to take time off from first-class cricket." During this time, I plan to concentrate on 50-over and 20-over cricket while maintaining my fitness for the longer version of the game. "I would make myself available at a point where I feel I can not only return but also perform with the red-ball," he had added.
