The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selection committee has sacked Wahab Riaz from the selector position. His job was always in danger once the team had a very poor time during the Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, in the West Indies and the United States of America, where they made a group stage exit.
So many player selections on the national side raised eyebrows among the experts, while the batting order too wasn’t satisfying to many. The national team captain Babar Azam and experienced wicket-keeper batter Mohammad Rizwan didn’t enjoy much success at the opening position.
Along with Wahab Riaz, another selector- Abdul Razzaq has also been dismissed from his position by the selection committee. The latter was also part of the women’s national team’s selector, but with this new development, he won’t be able to pick players in that team either.
‘I will be issuing my statement today evening’- Wahab Riaz
Wahab Riaz was removed from the chief selector post at the beginning of this year, before finding himself among one of the seven selectors to a committee that was lacking a chief. However, the left-arm pacer was supposed to be the head of the group, which didn’t make Riaz happy, given all the failure of selection or criticism would come on his sleeves.
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The 2009 champions had a very tough time during the T20 World Cup 2024. They started with a super-over defeat at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas against the USA where the captain and the other batters were not finding the middle of their bat quite regularly.
The dots were mounting the pressure on the batters to follow, and eventually, when they arrived at the middle, they didn’t find much time to adjust to the conditions and needed to slog from the very first ball.
The poor and average mindset of the team was quite clinical during their chase of 120 runs against the arch-rival India. At once, they found themselves at a stage where they needed 48 runs being required at run-a-ball and eight wickets in hand, and they had their experienced opening batter Mohammad Rizwan in the middle till the 15th over. Still, at the Nassau County Stadium, they fell short of six runs.
For the whole competition, even after being out of the event, they didn’t give a chance to Abrar Ahmed, which again questioned their selection procedure.
The former left-arm pacer Wahab Riaz did not agree with the statements being discussed during the sacking by the selection committee.
‘I don’t agree with the statements being discussed about adding pressure to the members of the selection committee, how can 1 vote dominate 6?’ Wahab Riaz wrote on his ‘X’ handle, formerly known as ‘Twitter.’ ‘Everything is documented on record in the meeting minutes. I will be issuing my statement today evening.’
The veteran has a very close relationship with the board chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who came down heavily on the team management, announcing a ‘minor surgery’ being required among the team.
‘I thought the team required minor surgery to start winning matches but now it appears that we have to go for major surgery.’ Naqvi was quoted as saying by the Pakistan media. ‘It is very disappointing the way we lost to the USA and now this loss to India. We need to now start looking at players beyond those in the team right now.’
Also Read: Pakistan Selection Committee Dismiss Selectors Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq
The issue for Wahab Riaz was about the voting. The seven-member committee was announced around four months ago, while the former pacer got a demotion with each of the seven members carrying an equal vote.
It also indicates that the PCB will have their seventh chief selector over the past four years, with the likes of Shahid Afridi, Misbah-Ul-Haq, Inzamam-Ul-Haq, and the rest being involved there. The remaining five selection committees, after the dismissal of Wahab Riaz and Abdul Razzaq, now Mohammad Yusuf, Asad Shafiq, the data analyst Bilal Afzal, and the captains and coach of the respective format.