By Hamad Hussain
KARACHI (TheSportsNext) September 4, 2012: The cricket lovers in Pakistan have already been deprived of international cricket at their home grounds and the recent humiliating performances of national cricket team are adding more to the frustration.
Pakistan cricket team have lost three consecutive One Day International series this year and this time the opponent was Australia which won the three-match ODI series by 2-1 in the United Arab Emirates and kept their unbeaten series winning record against Pakistan since last 10 years.
It was expected before the start of the series that Pakistan may have advantage over Australia as it was believed that the chilled Aussie players will struggle in the hot and warm weather of UAE but pathetic team performance, hapless planning and poor team selection cost Pakistan another ODI series this year which Pakistan could have won.
If we analyze the players’ selection in the last 10 months, we will notice that we hardly have found a new hero or a rising star in 2012. The credit for this ridiculous and humiliated team performance on international circuit also goes to Iqbal Qasim-led selection committee which failed to induct new blood into the team.
Once again, in crazy cricket loving population of over 180 million, selection committee failed to find new decent wicketkeeper and instead of going forward, they once again stepped back to the one and only Kamran Akmal to do the honors of dropping catches and missing stumpings behind the stumps for Pakistan. Everyone has witnessed how improved his wicketkeeping was in the last three matches against Australia as his love for Aussie cricketers started from the same point where he left in the famous Sydney Test of January 2010. Aussie cricketers will remember his generosity behind the stumps for the long time; that is for sure.
Another Akmal and another flop! The selection committee and Pakistan Cricket Board should have to answer and justify the continued selection of Umar Akmal in the national team. It is hard to understand that how many chances this man will get to destroy Pakistan cricket in future. Umar Akmal may have the talent but he doesn’t have the class nor has the ability to perform at the international level. He has already played 70 ODIs for Pakistan apart from the 16 Test matches, but he still doesn’t know how to play and doesn’t know anything about Shot-Selection.
I think there is a clear indication of rifts in the team as team was divided into three-four groups as after Mohammad Hafeez was named as skipper for T20s, there are players who are playing only for themselves and not for the team.
(I will discuss Mohammad Hafeez as captain in some other article because I also find a huge Question Mark on his abilities as Captain on international level.)
The two prime examples of playing their own trumpets are Muhammad Hafeez and Shahid Afridi. Both had very poor performances in ODIs played this year as Hafeez has just managed to score a fifty in the last one day international against Australia which was his only fifty in the last six months. It is pertinent to mention here that Muhammad Hafeez isn’t a bowling all-rounder and his bowling is his additional component but he has been getting selected in the team for his bowling skills rather than batting.
I don’t think we need to discuss performance of Shahid Afridi here. There is a big big big question mark on fitness of Shahid Afridi and also his commitment with the team as he failed to impress and contribute in the team’s performance in 2012. After spending 16 years on international arena, Shahid Afridi is still a problem child in Pakistan cricket and instead of presenting himself as an example for young players, his immature attitude is still causing problems for the team management and the Pakistan cricket.
It’s time to induct new blood in the national cricket team as young players like Asad Shafiq, Nasir Jamshed, Junaid Khan and Azhar Ali are making their presence felt in the international level with their impressive performances.
Pakistan cricket team need younger players like new talent Muhammad Nawaz, Raza Hassan, Sami Aslam, Hammad Azam and others who surely deserve a place in the international level.
It’s time to get rid of the old legs as they have played enough cricket and Pakistan cricket needs new stars to shine on international arena. The stage is perfectly set for the PCB to include young players in the team and plan for World Cup 2015 as Dav Whatmore can polish and groom young players and make them future stars of Pakistan but first PCB needs to kill politics in the team by getting rid of senior and under-performing players who are still in the team only because of their name and past performances.
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