Cricket players who turned out to be bad investments

[Madplayer]

This thread is about young players who were persisted with for years in hope that they will develop and become main stays of the team but eventually yielded little returns.

Currently i can think of Asad Shafiq as one who is turning out to be such a player. He should be one of the leading batsman of the test team at this point in his career but since last 2 years he is giving little back. Almost always scores soft runs and hardly ever plays decisive knocks.

Who are the other players who turned out to be poor investments previously or currently?

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

Asad
Wahab
Shehzad
from Pakistan.

 

[DRsohail]

RAHAT ALI>
wahab.
asad shafiq

 

[DRsohail]

Asad
Wahab
Shehzad
from Pakistan.

shahzad has delivered upto some extent and signs are there that he will do well..

 

[Madplayer]

Irfan pathan from India?

Farhan Behardein from SA?

James vince from England?

The former two were supported for a lot of years but turned out to be average to bad investments.

 

[ExpressPacer]

Shan Masood seems to be the latest induction.

 

[Proactive_]

Yuvraj Singh in Tests.

Rohit Sharma in Tests.

Ishant Sharma in cricket itself.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar in ODIs.

 

[another drop catch]

there are many names
but my top 3 would be :
asad shafique
anwar ali and
still 18 years old lala

 

[ExpressPacer]

Gary Ballance of England. And the English are STILL persisting with him.

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

shahzad has delivered upto some extent and signs are there that he will do well..

He will be a long term failure like Shafiq.

In tests Sami, Azhar and Imran Butt should be our three openers and in odis Fakhar, Talat, Zeeshan, Rafay, Noman, Azhar and even Hafeez are all better than him.

 

[ExpressPacer]

Maxwell from Australia. A hack.

 

[DRsohail]

He will be a long term failure like Shafiq.

In tests Sami, Azhar and Imran Butt should be our three openers and in odis Fakhar, Talat, Zeeshan, Rafay, Noman, Azhar and even Hafeez are all better than him.

i am telling about loi and t20..ya he is not a test materil..and what about that guy from multan i think,,,,,zeen abbas??/

 

[Adil_94]

Shafiq has to be up there. 7 years of investment and consistent selection in Tests and he still bats like a timid rookie.

isnt fit to lace Moyos boots.

 

[another drop catch]

for players from world cricket
I would go with :
imrul kayes
ambati rayadu
kemar roach
fidel edwards
windies player who injured ahmed shehzad
thilan kandamby
nasir hossain (bangladesh)
wayne parnell
ben duckett
munaf patel
cameron white
george bailey
david hussey
ed cowan
neil broom (nzl)

 

[Mir jibran]

for pakistan it has to be umar akmal and shafiq competing for top position

 

[Sidilicious]

for players from world cricket
I would go with :
imrul kayes
ambati rayadu
kemar roach
fidel edwards
windies player who injured ahmed shehzad
thilan kandamby
nasir hossain (bangladesh)
wayne parnell
ben duckett
munaf patel
cameron white
george bailey
david hussey
ed cowan
neil broom (nzl)

can't comment on others, but he did help us win a WC.

 

[Sidilicious]

From India
- Vinod Kambli
- Irfan Pathan
- Yusuf Pathan
- Ishant Sharma
- Varun Aaron
- Parthiv Patel (he wasn't that bad, its just Dhoni was one of the best)
- Pragyan Ojha
- Jhadhav

 

[Hamza_]

Salman Butt, Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal, Wahab Riaz.

 

[saeedhk]

Here's the King - Ahmad Shehzad. Prime example of bad investment.

 

[mmkextreme_1]

Asad Shafiq tops the list from Pakistan, after playing nearly 60 tests matches still instils no confidence in the team and fans.

 

[Finisher]

Shehzad
Shafiq
Mohammed Sami
Wahab Riaz
Kamran Akmal
Mohammed Hafeez

 

[Justcrazy]

Babar Azam in test. It may harm his OD performance.

 

[Madplayer]

Babar Azam in test. It may harm his OD performance.

He isnt a bad investment just yet. He is still new at test level.

 

[j_kazmi]

If we look at Pakistan over the last 20 years there’s way to many failed investments.

 

[big_gamer007]

From India
- Vinod Kambli
- Irfan Pathan
- Yusuf Pathan
- Ishant Sharma
- Varun Aaron
- Parthiv Patel (he wasn't that bad, its just Dhoni was one of the best)
- Pragyan Ojha
- Jhadhav

lol Kambli was not a bad investment at all he had all the talent in the world and did perform exceptionally well in his early days, politics and his attitude killed his career..

Similarly irfan Pathan wasn't a bad investment he was the next big Sean bowler and did relatively well early on with both bat and ball.. Once he lost his swing he was a goner but he did led us to many victories..

Jadhav is still playing maybe he turns out a dead investment maybe he turns out to be a superstar time will tell..

Agree with others in your list, most disappointing was Yousuf Pathan he started hai career during initial IPL days when we did not have any big hitting all rounder at number 7 showed a lot of promise with his IPL performances and then initial national team performances but then just lost his way for some reason..

 

[Zaz]

for pakistan

wahab
shafiq
sami
k akmal

Shafiq is heading towards an atg status as a bad investment

 

[Sidilicious]

lol Kambli was not a bad investment at all he had all the talent in the world and did perform exceptionally well in his early days, politics and his attitude killed his career..

Similarly irfan Pathan wasn't a bad investment he was the next big Sean bowler and did relatively well early on with both bat and ball.. Once he lost his swing he was a goner but he did led us to many victories..

Jadhav is still playing maybe he turns out a dead investment maybe he turns out to be a superstar time will tell..

Agree with others in your list, most disappointing was Yousuf Pathan he started hai career during initial IPL days when we did not have any big hitting all rounder at number 7 showed a lot of promise with his IPL performances and then initial national team performances but then just lost his way for some reason..

Well, I get what you mean about Irfan and Kambli. They were destined for much more but got carried away or didn't put in the right type of effort.

 

[Madplayer]

If we look at Pakistan over the last 20 years there’s way to many failed investments.

There will always be failed investments but this thread is about the worst cases where players were backed for many years but failed to deliver substantially.

Asad shafiq is turning out to be a prime example.

 

[Madplayer]

Umar akmal??????

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Wahab
Shafiq
Umar Akmal

 

[big_gamer007]

Akmal and Shehzad were supposed to be the guys around whom the Pakistani batting line up should have revolved.. Just like Kohli and Rohit for India unfortunately they both turned out to be duds..

 

[CricFan2012]

irfan pathan and umar ukmal

 

[thelandofthebravepeople]

Wahab
Salman Butt
Sharjeel
Aamir
Asif
Umar Akmal

 

[Madplayer]

Bump,

Any new names?

 

[FreePalestine]

Irfan pathan from India?

Farhan Behardein from SA?

James vince from England?

The former two were supported for a lot of years but turned out to be average to bad investments.

I would agree with two out of three. I think Farhan Behadein was a very good player! Unlucky to be in a very competitive south african set up with lots of quality batsmen. Very underrated player, I think.

On my list:
Kamran Akmal
Mohammad Sami
Umar Akmal
Shan Masood
Imran Farhat
Sohaib Maqsood

and many more....

 

[todfod 11]

Mohammed sami
Ahmed shehzad
Asad shafiq

 

[Convict]

for players from world cricket
I would go with :
imrul kayes
ambati rayadu
kemar roach
fidel edwards
windies player who injured ahmed shehzad
thilan kandamby
nasir hossain (bangladesh)
wayne parnell
ben duckett
munaf patel
cameron white
george bailey
david hussey
ed cowan
neil broom (nzl)

They were like the opposite. Most of those guys were older players selected solely to try and fill a single role.

 

[KyoOne]

So many from Pakistan...

K Akmal
U Akmal
A Akmal
Wahab Riaz*
Umer Amin*
Asad Shafiq*
Aizaz Cheema
Anwar Ali
Bilawal Bhatti
Asad Ali
Rahat Ali
Ehsan Adil
Sohaib Maqsood*
A Shehzad*
Faisal Iqbal
Salman Butt
I Nazir
Danish Kaneria
W Wasti
Arshad Khan

*These can still make a mark, but past investments have reaped poor/mixed returns

 

[Last Monetarist]

Sahibzada Muhammad Shahid Khan has to be worst investment ever made by a cricket country.

 

[finalfantasy7]

Duminy takes this thread

 

[TeymurBlake]

Its a very hard list to make as many ppers have listed alot of the players mentioned. I would say for me its Umar Akmal, don't understand why the managment keep selecting him despite the lack of intellect he posses in the game. Shan Masood is another who has no idea what he does when batting. Anwar Ali, Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal, Rahat Ali, Bilawal Bhatti, Mohammad Hafeez and many more when it comes to Pakistan. For England I would probably say Boyd Rankin, James Tredwell, Jamie Dalrymple, Ed Joyce and they have a few more. Other names such as Jimmy Neesham, Jamie How, Peter McGlashan, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus North and again many more in the world of cricket.

 

[CricTragic]

I win !!! Greg Matthews hehe

 

[shane]

The entire WI team except Narine.

 

[ExplicitAI]

From what I've seen:

Umar Akmal,
Imran Farhat
Rahat Ali
Bilawal Bhatti
Asad Shafiq
Wahab Riaz
Saad Nasim
Asad Ali
Mohammad Ayub Dogar
Sohaib Maqsood
Ahmed Shehzad (Still has time to redeem himself but that's unlikely)
Awais Zia

 

[ahmedwaqas92]

From what I've seen:

Umar Akmal,
Imran Farhat
Rahat Ali
Bilawal Bhatti
Asad Shafiq
Wahab Riaz
Saad Nasim
Asad Ali
Mohammad Ayub Dogar
Sohaib Maqsood
Ahmed Shehzad (Still has time to redeem himself but that's unlikely)
Awais Zia

The DUD XI

 

[Madplayer]

Any new names?

 

[Kashmirilion]

Any new names?

Shardul thakur
Kedar jhadav
Manish Pandey

 

[Amirforpresident]

Shardul thakur
Kedar jhadav
Manish Pandey

Thakur has just started his int. career
Kedar Jadav agree
Pandey is just unlucky India is such a batting power house.

 

[Baigel]

Imran Farhat, not necessarily a bad investment, but just never lived up to the hype manybe because of injuries

 

[Baigel]

Imran Nazir, not necessarily a bad investment, but just never lived up to the hype manybe because of injuries

 

[New Yorker]

This thread is about young players who were persisted with for years in hope that they will develop and become main stays of the team but eventually yielded little returns.

Currently i can think of Asad Shafiq as one who is turning out to be such a player. He should be one of the leading batsman of the test team at this point in his career but since last 2 years he is giving little back. Almost always scores soft runs and hardly ever plays decisive knocks.

Who are the other players who turned out to be poor investments previously or currently?

Rahat Ali 21 Tests, Ave 39, 14 ODIs Ave 39

Mohammed Sami 36 Tests, Ave 52

Babar Azam 13 Tests, Ave 28

 

[superfan]

Who has been the worst investment for Pakistan cricket?

Pakistan has tried and in many cases persisted with players that should’ve never made it to the team. Several names come to mind, but I’ll keep the list to three names.

Mohammad Sami – 36 test matches with an average of 52 per wicket. Only 2 five wicket hauls! Now how do you get to play 36 Test matches with such an average is beyond my understanding.

Imran Farhat – 40 Test matches…Batting average 32. The guy never once looked confident or made his presence felt in the team. Yet somehow he ended up playing 40 test matches. Some of the greats from the past like Andy Roberts only played 47 matches in their hall of fame career.

Imran Nzair – 79 ODIs with an average of 24 and S/R 81….It amazes me that Pakistani team was persisting with Nazir at a time when India and Sri Lanka were competing with players like Sehwag and Jayasuirya.

 

[the Great Khan]

Shoaib Malik

 

[Ummii]

UMAR AMIN
Umar Akmal
Ahmed Shehzad
Rahat Ali
Imran Farhat
Sohaib Maqsood

 

[RickyG]

Salman Butt- 33 Test matches and a batting average of 30. Overconfident and made his presence felt in all the wrong ways. Proven spot-fixer and potential match-fixer. An ego more inflated than his ODI stats against India. Yet somehow he thinks he is worthy of a recall and considers himself a good noble human being.

 

[CadPakFan]

Wahab Riaz even though I was a big fan of his.

 

[topspin]

Ahmed Shehzad - he was given so much faith since he was a 19 years old but threw it all the way. He had the talent but had a poor work ethic and attitude which is why his game never developed.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Umar Akmal should be the most emphatic answer to this question.

Shehzad to a lesser extent.

 

[topspin]

Umar Akmal should be the most emphatic answer to this question.

Shehzad to a lesser extent.

Umar Akmal had the best record in ICC batting tournaments from 2010 T20 WC up until 2014 T20Is - where he played his last notable knock in an ICC event with that sensational 94 off 54 balls against Australia. It's from 2015 when his career went sideways.

Ahmed Shehzad was a 70-75 SR batsman and just awful really.

 

[Srtfan]

Sami

 

[CricketDon]

Umar Akmal had the best record in ICC batting tournaments from 2010 T20 WC up until 2014 T20Is - where he played his last notable knock in an ICC event with that sensational 94 off 54 balls against Australia. It's from 2015 when his career went sideways.

Ahmed Shehzad was a 70-75 SR batsman and just awful really.

What else do you expect from blind clueless posters. Umar Akmal was an animal in form. His career and attitude when down hill in 2015.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Umar Akmal had the best record in ICC batting tournaments from 2010 T20 WC up until 2014 T20Is - where he played his last notable knock in an ICC event with that sensational 94 off 54 balls against Australia. It's from 2015 when his career went sideways.

Ahmed Shehzad was a 70-75 SR batsman and just awful really.

The fact that he has been given a lot of opportunities since his debut, and has managed to squander them on the basis of his lack of professionalism, lack of hard work and rubbish attitude. Years of playing him in the middle-order as a permanent fixture, and now he finds himself out of the team for an indefinite period of time. That is the definition of bad investment.

 

[CricketDon]

The fact that he has been given a lot of opportunities since his debut, and has managed to squander them on the basis of his lack of professionalism, lack of hard work and rubbish attitude. Years of playing him in the middle-order as a permanent fixture, and now he finds himself out of the team for an indefinite period of time. That is the definition of bad investment.

An indictment of the education system.

 

[Usman Chadda]

An indictment of the education system.

Why don't you try proving me wrong rather than show everybody here your unfortunate IQ level?

 

[Zaz]

Sami is the obvious one He started so brilliantly and had all the attributes initially of a future great

I guess as a result he got to play as much as he did despite producing very little

 

[topspin]

The fact that he has been given a lot of opportunities since his debut, and has managed to squander them on the basis of his lack of professionalism, lack of hard work and rubbish attitude. Years of playing him in the middle-order as a permanent fixture, and now he finds himself out of the team for an indefinite period of time. That is the definition of bad investment.

I agree with all of that but my question is how has Shehzad been a better investment than Umar Akmal? (albeit even slightly).

Ahmed Shehzad debuted at 18 whereas Umar Akmal at 19. The former also played international cricket this year whereas the latter hasn't even played for Pakistan for just over 18 months. I don't see how Umar Akmal is a worse investment than Shehzad.

 

[Saj]

Ahmed Shehzad - he was given so much faith since he was a 19 years old but threw it all the way. He had the talent but had a poor work ethic and attitude which is why his game never developed.

Can't argue with this really.

So many chances, so little in return.

 

[TeymurBlake]

For me its between Umar Akmal or Ahmed Shehzad.

 

[Usman Chadda]

I agree with all of that but my question is how has Shehzad been a better investment than Umar Akmal? (albeit even slightly).

Ahmed Shehzad debuted at 18 whereas Umar Akmal at 19. The former also played international cricket this year whereas the latter hasn't even played for Pakistan for just over 18 months. I don't see how Umar Akmal is a worse investment than Shehzad.

I'm not sure if you watched cricket at the time when these two made their debuts, but Akmal was always expected to play for Pakistan for a long time. We genuinely thought we had found a world-class batsman, and I agree for a little while he looked absolute dynamite.

Shehzad has been mediocre since his debut, besides a few series here and there. Didn't really expect much from him tbh. Which is why he is number two on MY bad investment list.

 

[topspin]

I'm not sure if you watched cricket at the time when these two made their debuts, but Akmal was always expected to play for Pakistan for a long time. We genuinely thought we had found a world-class batsman, and I agree for a little while he looked absolute dynamite.

Shehzad has been mediocre since his debut, besides a few series here and there. Didn't really expect much from him tbh. Which is why he is number two on MY bad investment list.

I've watched the game extensively for 18 years, so I've watched them since their debuts.

Agreed Umar Akmal was expected to play for a long time but at least he did deliver in his first few years. Ahmed Shehzad was also expected to be the next big thing when he scored that ton against NZ when he was 19 but as an opener instead.

Shehzad has played over 150 international games and has delivered next to nothing. He debuted a year younger than Umar at 18 and we're still investing in him evident from his selections in the XI earlier in the year.

On the other hand we haven't seen Umar Akmal in a Pakistan shirt since Jan 2017.

 

[Pete Rose]

yeah. doesnt get worse than farhat to be honest

 

[Hawkeye]

Nobody worse than Ahmed Shehzad.

Farhat doesn't come close.

Also, Shafiq.

 

[CricFan2012]

Sami is the obvious one He started so brilliantly and had all the attributes initially of a future great

I guess as a result he got to play as much as he did despite producing very little

Unfortunately Amir is going down the same path.

He only has a few spells early on in his test career and CT spell to show for so far with mediocre performances between all that.

 

[Speedster1]

Sami
Nazir
Wahab
Umer Akmal

 

[giri26]

In recent times, it has to be Umar Akmal.

 

[Rana]

Pre ‘marriage to selector’s daughter’ Farhat was a bright prospect

Became attrocious once the ‘senior player’ tag got to him.

There was a time when Farhat and Faisal Iqbal were in top order

 

[badsha001]

I would say Umar Akmal would be least contender on this list. The guy is still genuinely good but unfortunately our system failed to fix him. I would say his failure is about 20% his fault and 80% fault of the system. Better education and better system was needed for him.

 

[Ilan Bluestone]

Umar Akmal and Asad Shafiq.

 

[Ilan Bluestone]

Pre ‘marriage to selector’s daughter’ Farhat was a bright prospect

Became attrocious once the ‘senior player’ tag got to him.

There was a time when Farhat and Faisal Iqbal were in top order

I always enjoy the "senior player" tag.

Their seniors at being failures.

 

[Savak]

I would say Umar Akmal would be least contender on this list. The guy is still genuinely good but unfortunately our system failed to fix him. I would say his failure is about 20% his fault and 80% fault of the system. Better education and better system was needed for him.

I would say its 50-50. He was unfairly dropped from the test team in 2011 thanks to Mohsin Khan and Misbah and just never got a look in again. Then he got dropped from the ODI team in 2013 and 2014 and at the time he was the best averaging Pakistani batsman with the best strike rate but sadly he completely regressed since then