By Awais Saleem

Islamabad, Oct 12 (IANS): The Pakistan Cricket Board Tuesday sent a show-cause notice to Shahid Afridi for allegedly violating the central contract.

"Shahid Afridi has violated the central contract," the notice reads. "He is barred from giving any interviews to the media without prior consent of the PCB chairman," it added.

Afridi, Pakistan's one-day and T20 captain, had given an interview to Express TV Sunday in which he expressed reservations over the team selection for the forthcoming series against South Africa.

"The selection committee had discussed the probables for the England tour with me, but I don't know what happened this time around", Afridi had said. "It's better to sit down and sort these issues out instead of indulging in a blame game later on," he argued in the interview.

This is the latest controversy to hit Pakistan cricket, already engulfed by several controversies, including suspension of three players on spot-fixing allegations in August.

Salman Butt, captain of the Test team during Pakistan's England tour, is amongst the suspended players, alongwith pacers Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Aamer. The team had to find a new captain for the Test team in the form of the previously discarded batsman Misbah-ul-Haq.

"The board has moved illogically in issuing this show-cause notice," former Test cricketer Sarfraz Nawaz said, adding that the chairman is trying to find scapegoats to cover up the board's own follies.