Snubbed by selectors, Pakistan under-19 cricketer commits suicide

Islamabad: Former international cricketer Aamer Hanif’s son has allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself after being snubbed by selectors in an Under-19 cricket team, a media report has said.

Mohammad Zaryab, who was a first-year college student, was upset after he was declared too old to be selected for the U-19s, Geo News reported.

My son was pressurised, he was told he was overage. The coaches behaviour towards him forced him (to kill himself yesterday), said Hanif, as he pleaded for other such sons to be saved from such (non-cooperative) environment.

Hanif has represented Pakistan in five ODIs during the 1990s.

Zaryab had in January represented Karachi in an U-19 tournament in Lahore, from where he was "sent home over an injury". The teenager had resisted the move, but he was given an assurance that he would be selected again, the report said.

However, he was rejected later on the grounds of being an "overage player".

Hanif said his son "was forced to commit suicide by coaches and people overseeing the affairs of Under-19 cricket in the country".