Are Pakistani players chronic "underachievers"?

[Sirris]

Reading the Glenn McGrath vs Wasim Akram thread I came across the sentiment of how Akram supposedly underachieved. Which made me wonder how such a thing can be objectively judged in the first place. I mean how could you say that someone with Wasim's success has underachieved? On a second thought I realized there is quite a long list of Pakistani players who can be said to have underachieved. Such as:

Saeed Anwar
Ijaz Ahmed
Abdul Razzaq
Mohammed Yousuf
Wasim Akram
Shoaib Akhtar
Yasir Hameed
Nasir Jamshed
Imran Nazir
Mohammed Asif


Honorary mention:
Shahid Afridi
Kamran Akmal
Umar Akmal
Ahmed Shehzad

This is not my personal list but a general sentiment Pakistani fans have towards these players from my observation. I am sure there are many more that can be added to this list. I don't have enough expertise to give a verdict on who has underachieved and who hasn't.

Can we honestly say that at least some of these players have genuinely underachieved or is this tag used by some fans in an attempt to make their favorite player appear greater than they really are. Isn't hard work, doing the necessary things and consist results part of being "talented"?

Or are we a nation of lazy underachievers?

 

[Pete Rose]

To be an underachiever means that you have to rely on a subjective measure of a player’s worth. I would rather ask the question whether Pakistani players are as good as we make them out to be?

 

[Sunny_majoka]

Waqar younis is underachiever more than any one in Pakistan

 

[Red Devil]

How was Wasim an underachiever lmao, the guy ended up as one of the greatest to ever play the game despite having to play with diabetes for most part of his career.

 

[Pete Rose]

How was Wasim an underachiever lmao, the guy ended up as one of the greatest to ever play the game despite having to play with diabetes for most part of his career.

Is that the benchmark for greatness . Played with a medical condition. He was missing in action vs Australia and South Africa in Odis and tests 99 onwards

 

[Red Devil]

Is that the benchmark for greatness . Played with a medical condition. He was missing in action vs Australia and South Africa in Odis and tests 99 onwards

Diabetes is a debilitating disease, it can be career threatening for a professional athlete. So yeah it's definitely worth mentioning when we're talking about whether a player achieved as much as he should have or not.

He declined towards the end of his career, as most players do. But even then his numbers aren't horrible. Averaging around 28 against SA and Aus after 99 in ODIs.

 

[Stewie]

No. Shoaib akhtar under achieved.. afridi .. yes. mohd yousaf absolutely.


Wasim vs McGrath is a very subject debate as most of these head to head comparisons are. Wasim played on dead Home wickets and if you see how many of his edges went begging to be caught by our poor slippers, you would understand this can’t be fair comparison. McGrath played on board Macy Home wickets, and relied 85% on keeper or slipper to pouch the edges... wasim has to rely on bowlers or lbw.

So I would say people like wasim, saqlain, mushy, Imran, Mirandad, sarfaraz Nawaid, the Muhammad brothers, Zagreb Abbas, etc did not under achieve.

Inzi did to some extent, I believe he could have done a lot more but his poor fitness during the middle of his career did not help him.

I would say our ratio of over under achievers is probably same as other nations.