Pakistan cricket is going through a very tough time, both on and off the field. The former players are accusing the current set of players, who failed in the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2024, co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA), as they knocked out of the group stage of the tournament.
For the very first time in the history of the tournament, Pakistan failed to reach the second round of the competition, after being the runners-up to England in the last T20 World Cup in Australia. Even in 2021, they lost the semifinal against Australia at the Dubai International Stadium.
Many former International players have spoken about how the players are making mistakes on a few occasions, what should they do to make developments in their game, and also the mindset in which they play. On the flip of the coin, a few retired Pakistan players have accused Babar Azam and co. of the defeats.
PCB to make strict rules on current Pakistan players to work on TV
In the very first game of the T20 World Cup 2024, Pakistan couldn’t come up with a better show with the bat against the United States of America (USA), at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas. The top order looked out of touch, as the pressure of dots got the shoulder of the whole batting line-up and the dressing room.
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A better bowling performance in the second half pushed the game into the super-over, but the batters again couldn’t hold their nerve, while a few wrong decisions in the middle put the ‘Men in Green’ on the wrong side of the coin.
Against India, the bowling attack, consisting of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Naseem Shah, and Haris Rauf did a great job by restricting the Indian batting for just 119 runs, even from a position where it felt like the opponents would run away with a huge score on the board.
The Pakistan side found themselves in a dominating position too, where they needed 48 runs at run-a-ball with eight wickets in hand, while the pitch got eased out a bit under the sun. But once they lost Mohammad Rizwan, the rest of the batting line-up fell like a pack of cards, and they fell short by six runs in the chase.
The requirement for the 2009 champions at that moment was to win against Canada by a huge margin, but they couldn’t do so, even after collecting a victory. The washout result between the USA and Ireland ended the Pakistan campaign, which somehow managed to gain a win over Ireland from the jaws of defeat.
The players have performed below-par and there is no doubt over it, as the fans have expressed their disappointment in the various social media platforms for the team. The players, themselves are concerned by the situation but were quite sad with the way the retired Pakistan players have behaved with them and the board.
One of the anonymous players has also demanded that the formers who have worked with the board and the current players who could still play for the country, should not be allowed to make an appearance on TV as experts, as they criticize their players so much, that it angers the fans even more.
Another player mentioned the name of Ahmed Shehzad and felt that when he was in contention of making a return to the side, he was speaking little about the side and the players, and once he realized that his time is up, he is going against the captain Babar Azam. Mohammad Hafeez too is another one who has been doing such things with the foreign media.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), in that case, has been planning to make a policy regarding whether any current or retired player associated with the board should work on television in the future.