Blame game and new promises

Afridi expresses willingness to take captaincy amid turmoil.

KARACHI:

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 3^rd, 2014.

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