Sethi is likely to grill the team management, selectors and the captain in the imminent inquiry that the PCB chairman says will take place soon. PHOTO: AFP
Like all past debacles, Pakistan’s embarrassing defeat to the West Indies that sent them packing early from the World Twenty20 has been followed with blame game and promises by the high ups to bring improvement and heavy flak.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi, who was earlier predicting a semi-final berth for his team, announced arranging an inquiry after the nation’s hopes were dashed.
PCB’s chief cricket consultant Zaheer Abbas, who accompanied the team in Bangladesh as batting mentor, hinted at an overhaul.
“There is a meeting [on Thursday] and decisions will be taken after that,” said Abbas on his return.
“We will be doing a post-mortem in the coming days.”
Blame game in full swing
Victory has many fathers but failure is an orphan; something similar appears to be the case within team’s circles.
Rumours were doing the rounds about differences between captain Mohammad Hafeez and head coach Moin Khan on selection matters.
Meanwhile, an official close to the team management said Moin was not ready to take responsibility of the failure of experienced Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal.
“Moin is claiming that both were selected on Hafeez’s insistence,” said the official.
However, Salim Jaffar – part of the selection committee that finalised the squad – said all the stakeholders must take responsibility instead of pointing fingers.
“As a selector, I am ready to take responsibility,” said Jaffar. “But the whole team management including the captain are involved in selection as per our criteria.
“I still feel Malik was not a bad choice because he is a T20 specialist which is why foreign franchises often rope him in.”
Afridi ready to captain Pakistan
Upon his return from Dhaka, seasoned all-rounder Shahid Afridi provoked another debate by showing interest in reclaiming the captain’s band.
“I am ready to take any challenge in the team’s interest,” said Afridi when asked by a reporter at the airport about his willingness if asked to lead the side.
He blamed slow batting in the first six overs for defeat against the West Indies.
“Unlike our last game [against Bangladesh] and the match against Australia, we lacked aggression this time.”
Meanwhile, former batting great Javed Miandad termed the defeat insipid.
“Fans and former players can accept defeat but if you lose without putting up a good fight, like Pakistan did last night, it’s unacceptable,” said Miandad.
Former captain and one of Pakistan’s modern batting greats Mohammad Yousuf, blamed the inability to rotate the strike under pressure for the batting failure.
“Not a single batsman in the team has a proper technique to deal with the spinners and hitting fours and sixes is not the only way to bat,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 3rd, 2014.
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I think they need to can the whole setup...bad coach bad selectors bad consultants (hafeez was rt coaches are clueless) and bad captains...
let just bring them to the kness through social media
What an immature statement from Saleem Jaffar. Malik not a bad choice, the question to Saleem Jaffar should be that stats shows a different story altogether. If the criteria is to select a player since foreign franchises are giving them contracts, then we should have selected Azhar Mahmood and Yasir Arafat as well. The selection committee needs to make intelligent choices and should let go these old horses like Malik and Kamran. Time to inject youngsters who are good fielders as well, the criteria of selection should be simple for T20's, a player needs to be either: a) good batsman with bowling abilities. b) good batsman with fielding abilities. c) good bowler with batting abilities. d) good bowler with fielding abilities. We need to draft majority of youngsters into T20 and ODI squads, provide them exposure and build a strong team for future. I pray that Rashid Latif is the right man for the job. Moin Khan should remain and Afridi be leading both T20 and ODI squads. Bring in lots of youngsters, the likes of Raza Hasan, Fawad Alam, Shan Masood, Babar Azam, Talha, Hammad Azam and players with hard hitting abilities as batsmen.
fire the selectors.....as simple as that.............
Let us continue rolling back the clock and never look forward. While each and every team has a younger and new captain Pakistan is only going in the opposite direction which says a lot about our future.
It's the batting that needs to be worked on. And I'm totally up for Shahid Afridi captaining the team.
Oh God they think we r idiots, Themselves they are making millions and we r here wasting time to watch them all the time, Why people not themselves play with friends and family rather to sticking with TV in leisure for lazy cricket
Only three people to blame. S malik, k akmal and m hafeez. And look what this s jaffer is saying. s malik was not a bad chouce.....even a school kid would not have chosen him in his side. This shows the vision of our selectors..and if s malik is playing big bash league did anyone notice his performance in bbl also or just playing a league is the criteria for selection.. hopeless situation for pakistan cricket in the presence of this pcb management. Plesse shift pcb to islamabad..pleaseee..