Poor selection, bad coaching, indiscipline, factions within the team responsible for poor performance of the Pakistan
KARACHI: Over the years, we have seen a decline in the quality of cricketers produced in the country, in terms of discipline, performance, professionalism and commitment to the game. The primary reason for this, in my view, is the fact that in most cases players are not chosen on merit but on whom they may be connected to. And the result of this flawed policy of ‘selection’ is before all of us. After all, it was a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selection committee that denied a talented cricketer like Imran Tahir a chance to play at the highest level. This led him to migrate to South Africa where he managed to make it to the powerful South African team, and this was possible because they largely select players on merit.
Players like Mohammad Irfan were not accommodated initially — in his case because he comes from a very humble background and does not have any powerful relatives to put forward his case. By the time he was selected, like so many other talented players, he was already more than 30 years of age.
Poor selection, bad coaching, indiscipline and factions within the team are responsible for the poor performance of the Pakistan cricket team in recent months. Furthermore, it seems that no lessons have been learned since almost everybody whom Justice Qayyum had mentioned in his report on match-fixing went on to be given assignments in the PCB.
Rahat Siddiqi
Published in The Express Tribune, March 6th, 2015.
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