PUNE, SEPTEMBER 16: Pakistan cricket celebrated its golden jubilee on Tuesday. In attendance at the glittering two-hour event in Rawalpindi was the current Pakistan team, as well as the touring Bangladesh side. But not suspended captain Rashid Latif.

Though the skipper is currently serving a five-match ban for ‘wrongly’ claiming a catch in the recent Multan Test against Bangladesh — the stand-in captain for the ongoing one-day series is Inzamam-ul Haq — it was expected that, having been appointed captain till February 2004, Latif would be part of the event. But he’s paid the price for his indiscretion. ‘‘The Multan incident is still fresh in everybody’s mind. So we wanted to avoid any kind of unpleasant situation,’’ Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesperson Sami-Ul-Hasan told The Indian Express.

But Hasan asserted that there was no attempt to sideline Latif, who was also the whistleblower on the match-fixing scandal. ‘‘Rashid (Latif) will very much be a part of the September 22 reception of the visiting South African team.’’

The event in Rawalpindi was primarily to honour surviving members of the first-ever Pakistan Test team, in 1952; they were given gold medals and Rs 2.5 lakhs.