Ramiz Raja said there is a growing predictability and staleness about Misbah's captaincy. PHOTO: AFP.
"Misbah has given all he could to Pakistan cricket as captain. There is now a predictability and staleness in his captaincy and our brand of cricket," former captain Ramiz Raja said after the unexpected, 24-run defeat in Harare.
"This is the right time now to have a new captain and introduce some new players. The defeat is embarrassing, frustrating and shameful."
"No one likes to back a losing side," Ramiz added.
"We need to rethink our priorities and set a new direction or else people will stop following cricket."
"We have hit rock bottom as a cricket nation," former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar said, while Mushtaq Ahmed said he feared for the team in the test and one-day series against number one test nation South Africa starting next month in Abu Dhabi.
"If we can't beat Zimbabwe then we are going to face a torrid time against South Africa," former test leg-spinner Mushtaq said.
The win allowed cash-strapped Zimbabwe, who had not beaten a top test-playing nation in more than a decade, to square the two-match series.
"We played our worst cricket against a nation that is struggling with internal problems and whose players were not even in the right frame of mind for this series because of their pay dispute with their board," former wicketkeeper-batsman Rashid Latif said.
COMMENTS (21)
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As long Pakistan team was winning under Misbah, his capaincy was lauded and noted fresh. All of a sudden when it loses for no fault of Misbah, it has gone stale. Load of crap!
Pak beat England 3-0 and a winning combination was born. Misbah and Mohsin. Pakistan team was bundled out for 99 and still won the Test match.Such was the combination. PCB changed the team. Removed Mohsin and the support staff and since then ofcourse the team is going up and down. The ONLY consistent thing is MISBAH's batting! I dont care how old he still is the best Batsman we have and probably one of the best fielders. One also feels somehow bowlers have lacked the killer instinct although Abdul Rehman's inclusion was good. If Pakistan had scored the 25 extra runs they would have broken a record in chasing 4th innings totals.
Rameez Raja shoudl be asked two questions
Why Javed Miandad was sacked and Bob Woolmer was brought in Why Mohsin was sacked and Dev Whatmore was brought inWas he not instrumental in both decesions??
Its easy to criticise Misbah, but Captain has nothing to do in failure of top batsmen,
I dnt care if you sack Misbah , but atleast be objective.
And Ramiz please answer my question was it the right move, specially sacking of Mohsin
What former retired players , all of them now are on a job , some as paid commentators , others running private coaching academies , and busy training players of england. None of them has ever offered his experince for pakistan cricket team. What do they think of hafeez , younis khan , asad shafiq , azhar ali , khurram manzoor.
You folks are very harsh on your team. Did they not win the ODI and T-20 series and even the first test match? Even this match they almost won it , 25 more runs and the headlines would have been different.
The only thing that is stale is Rameez Raja's cricket commentary. With clichés used ad nauseum, it has become jarring to the ears without any expert insight into the game. Listen to Nasser Hussain or Mike Atherton to get an idea about what I mean by expert insight.
Also, it is not fair to target Misbah as he is probably the only world class test batsmen in the team along with with on-off again Younis Khan. The rest of the team should be cleaned out.
Pakistan needs more aggression, the defensive approach is sinking Pak cricket. Misbah must be removed as a captain and play as batsman only.
Criticism, should be supportive and constructive not destructive, Ramiz Raja, with your wealth of experience and knowledge you should be helping and not being unhelpful.
I don't understand what reasons the selection committee can show for continuing to exclude Fawad Alam.
Misbah is the only consistent player in the side and there's nothing wrong in his captaincy. Give him a better bunch of guys to perform. Get rid of Hafeez, Asad, Athar and get in Yousaf, Umar Akmal and Gul. See the results then.
As usual, Ramiz Raja is talking out of where the sun does not shine.
Misbah is one of the key people in the team and a very good captain who has lifted Pakistan from the doldrums. This is not a Misbah issue. It is a problem with team selection and politics at PCB - even the Chairman is a political appointee.
May I remind Ramiz Raja that when he was the captain, he lost test series against a very weak Sri Lanka first in Pakistan ...and then also in Sri Lanka.
I agree with him. Let us get rid of the only batsman performing consistently. Only truly educated gentleman is not needed in the team. Let us bring a different leader who cannot be selected on his performance only. Everybody knows Misbah is more consistent than most comentators and experts in Pakistan. This demand is like get rid of Hanif Mohd from Pakistani team because he was slow and stale. However, the others were totally mediocre!
Rameez says: “We need to rethink our priorities and set a new direction or else people will stop following cricket.”
My buddy, people have ALREADY stopped watching Paki cricket due to its sad state of affairs. Most of the people that i know love Tennis and Football.
It is high time, that from top to bottom everything gets revamped about Pakistan cricket else like Hockey and other sports, we are going to be thrashed and forgotten!!
It was curse of Umar Akmal. Need to change the PCB selection committee now. They were very biased. Hafeez, Asad and Azhar should be replaced with Umar Akmal, Umar Amin and Haris Sohail etc
Introduce some new players ? Ramiz Raja need to check the squad !
"This is the right time now to have a new captain and introduce some new players."
6/11 players are new...what is ramiz talking about?
Ramiz Raja should know that Misbah has done more for pakistan in his few years as being captain than Ramiz has and will do in his life.
Alright - What you all have said out about the team is true - but you need to stop criticising Misbah - seriously!!
He stands alone - be it in any format!! Our batsmen are way below par - pathetic performance! PCB really needs to stop favouring and end the politics - this system needs to change before cricket ends up just like what has happened to our Hockey today!
former captain Ramiz Raja said after the unexpected, 24-run defeat in Harare. Please remove UN, Thanks
"former captain Ramiz Raja said after the unexpected, 24-run defeat in Harare." ET, Please remove UN from unexpected.