Former Pakistani cricketer Aamer Hanif's son killed himself on Tuesday, 20 February, by hanging himself over “non-selection in an under-19 cricket team.”
Mohammad Zaryab, who was a first-year college student, was Hanif's oldest son.
According to Hanif, who represented Pakistan in five ODIs during the 1990s, his son was upset after he was declared “too old” to be selected for the U-19 team, as reported by Pakistan’s Geo News.
Zaryab had represented Karachi in an U-19 tournament in Lahore in January, from where he was “sent home due to an injury.”
The teenager had resisted the move, but he was given an assurance that he would be selected again. However, he was rejected later on the grounds of being an "overage player.”
Hanif said that his son “was forced to commit suicide by coaches and people overseeing the affairs of under-19 cricket in the country.”
“My son was pressurised... The coaches' behaviour towards him forced him (to kill himself),” said Hanif, as he pleaded for “other such sons to be saved” from “such (non-cooperative) environment.”
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