Pakistan’s star cricketer Babar Azam has informed the Colombo Strikers management that he will not wear the jersey with a betting company “KHELOYAR” in the ongoing Lanka Premier League (LPL) 2023 owing to his religious beliefs and practices.

As previously reported, the LPL 2023 is featuring several surrogate brands for illegal betting websites as official sponsor for teams and the tournament, despite betting being illegal in the country.

Babar Azam is leading Colombo Strikers in the tournament but has refused to wear the jersey featuring promotion for a betting website. According to reports, he had even included the same in the contract statement with Colombo Strikers.

Babar Azam following the path of other teammates

This is not the first time that a cricketer is taking a stand against something which they do not take part in. Previously, Shahid Afridi also taped out the logo for a betting company during Legends League Cricket (LLC) Masters tournament in Qatar.

A similar incident also occurred during Pakistan Super League (PSL) 2023, where captain of Multan Sultans, Mohammad Rizwan also masked out logo for a surrogate betting website using brown tape.

Betting and gambling is also prohibited in Pakistan, despite that, the PSL organizers featured surrogate brands for illegal betting websites. When asked, the organizers claimed that the partnership was only with the surrogate brand and not with their betting counterparts.

Surrogate advertisements are also a big problem in India. While the trend has settled down a bit in last few months, there are still celebrity ads on social media which need to be addressed.

People who are unsure regarding the illegitimacy and banned apps information can check here.