Sikandar Raza initiated the batting order for the team immediately. After the incident, he called a news conference and took control of things himself. During that appearance, he stated it unequivocally and reiterated this point more than once. Shaheen Shah Afridi was not wrong. The responsibility for what happened on Saturday night sits entirely with Raza, and he wanted that on record.
A letter from the Punjab police to PSL CEO Salman Naseer had accused both Raza and Shaheen of forcefully escorting unauthorised visitors up to Raza's hotel room. That letter leaked onto social media on Sunday, and within hours, it was everywhere. Raza's press conference was his direct response to the accusations in that letter.
Why the Visitors Were Even There
Raza explained the situation in straightforward terms. He wanted to meet with other close family and friends. These are acquaintances he has recognized for 19 years. He also receives visits from his wife and children. He said his family and relatives live in Pakistan so he doesn’t spend the year with them. Consequently, when they come, he prefers to spend time with them properly rather than in the lobby of a business centre.
He did not wish to meet them downstairs in an official place. He desired to take them to his room upstairs for their talk. He requested Shaheen to descend and assist in bringing them up. That is it. That is the full extent of Shaheen's involvement, according to Raza.
"Shaheen merely went down on my request," Raza said. "It was my call, not Shaheen's."
Raza Directly Pushed Back on the Police Account
The police letter used the phrase forcefully escorting to describe what Shaheen and Raza did when bringing visitors up to the room. Raza rejected that description completely, and he was direct about it.
He asserted that Shaheen didn’t coerce anyone. According to him, when they were bringing the visitors up, he himself was in the lift with Shaheen, so he knows that there was nothing coercive about anything. Due to Shaheen helping his teammate out, the visitors willingly came as they wanted to see Raza.
Raza also addressed the question of whether they knew they were breaking the rules. He said if those were the SOPs, meaning that visitors were not permitted in player rooms, he was genuinely not aware of that. He added that to some extent, Shaheen was not aware either. They were not trying to get around security. They simply did not know the specific rule that applied to this situation.
The 40 Minutes Versus Three Hours Dispute
Here is where the two accounts really come apart. Raza said the visitors sat upstairs with him for 40 minutes. The police letter says the visitors were in the room for approximately three hours. That is not a small discrepancy. That is a two and a half hour difference between what the player says happened and what the authorities say happened.
Raza did not directly address that specific gap during the press conference, but he was firm in saying what he remembered. Sources within the Qalandars’ setup have broadly confirmed the general shape of the visit, but they disputed forced entry or aggressive behaviour.
The question of how long those visitors were in that room is unresolved; it sits uncomfortably between what Raza says and what the police letter states.
What the Police Letter Actually Said
The letter from the Punjab police was addressed to PSL CEO Salman Naseer, and it laid out a serious complaint. It said that despite being refused permission by both the PCB's security and anti-corruption manager and Naseer himself, Shaheen and Raza took the visitors up to the room anyway.
That is the part that made this more than just a simple misunderstanding. Permission was apparently sought and denied before the visitors were brought upstairs. Raza's version is that he was not fully across the rules and that there was no deliberate attempt to override anyone's authority. The police version is that permission was clearly refused, and the players went ahead regardless.
ESPNcricinfo reached out to Salman Naseer for a comment. No response came back.
Raza Took Full Ownership
Raza was unequivocal about one thing throughout his press conference, no matter the details of the timeline and the order of events. He is the one who must be responsible, not Shaheen.
“I am the one responsible, not Shaheen,” he said plainly.
He explained that Shaheen was acting on his request, helping out a teammate who wanted to see people he cared about. Shaheen had no personal stake in those visitors coming up. He went downstairs and brought them up because Raza asked him to. That context, Raza argued, matters when it comes to deciding who bears responsibility for the breach.
The Qalandars franchise appears to have taken that argument seriously to a degree. They fined Shaheen PKR 1 million as captain, but confirmed no action would be taken against Raza. Whether that reflects a genuine reading of the situation or simply a response to Raza's public statement is hard to say from the outside.
Where the Qalandars Organisation Stood
Umar Farooq, the head of media for the Qalandars, released a short statement on the day the police letter became public. The incident involving the two players was known to the franchise, which had contacted the PSL over the incident, he said. Their words were chosen very carefully. They did not confirm or deny too much because things were not yet fully developed.
The following morning, the franchise issued a longer statement confirming the penalty for Shaheen and that they are considering this as a misunderstanding, which was unnecessarily blown up and exaggerated. While they weren't disputing the gist of what had occurred, they were evidently resisting the more sensational image conjured by the police letter.
Neither the PCB Nor PSL Has Officially Said Anything
As things stand, the PCB has not put out any official statement on this matter. The PSL has not either. The police letter called on the PSL to take action to make sure nothing like this happens again, but no formal public response has come from either body.
The franchise has acted on its own by finding Shaheen. Raza has spoken publicly. The police have made their position known through the letter. But the two central institutions of Pakistani domestic cricket have stayed quiet while all of this plays out in the press.
Whether that silence holds or whether an official statement eventually comes will say quite a lot about how seriously the PCB and PSL intend to treat what happened on Saturday night at that hotel.
For now, Raza has said what he wanted to say. He put his hand up, tried to protect his captain, and made his version of events as public as he possibly could. What happens next is out of his hands.