Mohammad Rizwan is set to make his long-awaited return to domestic red-ball cricket, taking over the captaincy for Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) in the seventh and final round of the prestigious first-class President’s Trophy, which gets underway on Monday, October 19. The appointment marks Rizwan’s first appearance in this year’s tournament, which commenced last month and has reached its thrilling concluding stage.
Alongside Rizwan, opening batter Imam-ul-Haq, who is facing a parallel inquiry, has also been granted formal permission to take the field for the Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) in the final round of fixtures. Both prominent Pakistan internationals find themselves navigating a complex and high-profile domestic season complicated by external legal inquiries.
Rizwan’s inclusion in the SNGPL squad for the tournament’s climax brings a significant boost of experience and leadership to the side. However, his path to this final round has been anything but straightforward. When the tournament began last month, the wicketkeeper-batter was conspicuously absent from the team sheets and deemed ineligible to participate. At the time of his initial omission, the official explanation circulated within domestic cricket circles was that he had failed to appear in a mandatory pre-season fitness test, a procedural hurdle that routinely benches players ahead of domestic campaigns.
However, as weeks passed, the narrative surrounding his absence shifted dramatically. It later emerged that the fitness test explanation was a cover, and that Rizwan had actually been denied permission to play in the tournament due to an ongoing investigation by the country’s cybercrimes agency, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA). The revelation cast a shadow over his domestic availability and thrust the intersection of sport, state inquiries, and player rights into the national spotlight.
The inquiry has involved scrutiny from the cybercrimes watchdog, prompting official responses from the players involved. Before his latest scheduled appearance at the NCCIA’s Lahore office at the start of this month, Rizwan took a proactive legal approach, writing directly to the agency to formally question and seek a transparent explanation into the exact nature and rationale behind the ongoing investigation targeting him.
Rizwan’s strategy has not been limited to correspondence. Faced with the agency’s actions and the disruption to his professional playing career, the senior cricketer opted to move the formal judicial courts, directly challenging the NCCIA over its conduct, procedures, and handling of the case. This legal battle represents a rare and serious confrontation between a prominent national athlete and a federal investigative body in Pakistan.
In contrast, the situation surrounding Imam-ul-Haq has followed a slightly different trajectory. Imam, who like Rizwan had initially been blocked from participating in the earlier rounds of the President’s Trophy, is also under active investigation by the NCCIA. As part of their ongoing inquiries, the agency has seized and retained custody of Imam’s mobile phone. Despite the severity of the investigation and the confiscation of his personal device, Imam has not opted to pursue formal legal representation or challenge the agency’s actions through the courts in the manner Rizwan has chosen. Despite these complications, authorities have cleared Imam to feature for OGDCL in the tournament’s final round, offering him a temporary return to competitive action.
While the immediate focus for Rizwan is leading SNGPL in the final round of the President’s Trophy, his domestic schedule for the coming weeks is already taking shape. It is also understood that Rizwan is slated to extend his red-ball commitments by playing for the Peshawar region in next month’s upcoming Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Pakistan’s premier first-class tournament. This indicates that, despite the ongoing legal clouds and investigations surrounding his off-field activities, cricket boards and regional selectors remain willing to utilize his services on the field as the domestic calendar progresses through its demanding autumn schedule.
The unfolding developments highlight a turbulent period for some of Pakistan’s recognizable cricketing names, who find themselves balancing high-stakes domestic competition with legal battles against federal cybercrime authorities. As SNGPL prepares for their crucial final-round encounter under Rizwan’s leadership, the broader implications of the NCCIA investigations continue to loom large over the domestic circuit, keeping both fans and administrators closely attuned to how these legal and professional battles ultimately resolve.
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