Cricket players who turned out to be bad investments

[Zakaz]

None other than Ahmed shehzad and wahab riaz, was fun watching them abuse each other in PSL though lol

 

[Suleiman]

Depends on how you define it. I define it as most amount of chances given for minimal reward.

Shehzad probably ranks at the top. Has won us nothing substantial, only thing I recall is his ODI 100 in South Africa followed by a duck in the next game. So since starting in 2009 this guy played his role in 1 game for a series win against a good opponent.

In tournaments, it's not even a question...

 

[Sher Khan]

Umar Akmal early on in his career won Pakistan many games. If I’m being honest, than I think Shehzad with his selfish batting lost Pakistan many games. People point to his good test stats. But anyone really can score runs in the UAE. Wahab riaz also has been a massive letdown. Although, he hasn’t contributed to a few test wins vs England with his reverse swing.

 

[RyanRyan10]

Mohammed Sami & Wahab Riaz

Both have been pathetic for most part of their careers
Hyped because of one-off performances and pace

Took Pak cricket backwards by lowering the standards of their bowling

 

[cricketindiafan]

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.

What stopped him from hitting 100s before 2015? He was averaging in early 30s from 2012 onwards, and almost never scored runs at a SR of 90+. In T20s, not in one year his SR was 140+. An occasional knock here and there does not make him a beast. He was highly inconsistent right from the beginning, which is okay for a young batsman. But never rectified that problem

 

[shaaik]

Mohammed Sami & Imran farhat take the cake. In recent times, Wahab raiz.

 

[adil_909]

how can anyone pick anyone other than salman butt? below average player who was made captain and went on to bring tremendous shame to the country. most of the other players mentioned just didn't make the cut from a skill level, but certainly not a worse investment than this clown.

 

[DRsohail]

Ahmad Shahzad.Umar akmal.

 

[Sports_Psychologist]

Umar Akmal tops the chart any day.
Imran Nazir another talent without brains.
Ahmed Shehzad spoiled brat full of over confidence.
Imran Farhat
Somewhat Shahid Afridi the batsman.
Umar Amin
Shan Masood
Sohaib Maqsood
Muhammad Sami
Iftikhar Anjum
Muhammad Asif
Salman Butt
Abdur Rauf
Sohail Khan
and many many many more.

 

[nextover666666]

I don't. Know if it would qualify as an investment but their was a point of time when they kept playing Kamran Akmal despite his failure I felt he was given too many chances as well

 

[hussain.r97]

Umar Akmal by far.

 

[Sadozai]

After reading the title of this thread, the first name comes to my mind is LEGEND UMAR AKMAL

 

[GoUgandaCranes]

In terms of impact, Salman Butt.

Not just we spent a long time thinking he'd develop into a good batsman, we also believed he'd be a good captain and help the team move forward in the era of educated statesman like captains.

What we got in result was a guy who spot fixed, had a shady past and participated in robbing us of two of the most promising bowlers that we had at the time. One of them would have been a very useful test bowler but now all he does is sit on the sidelines and make smart comments.

 

[Markhor]

The obvious ones I won't repeat.

Mansoor Akhtar from the 80s - IK had a soft spot for him but never could make the stepup to international cricket.

 

[Titan24]

Good thread.

Rao Iftikhar Anjum
Imran Farhat

Also Ahmed Shehzad and Umar Akmal till now unless they do a big turnaround. Its not what they achieved or not but rather they fell far behind what was expected of them.

 

[MMHS]

I’ll go for a bowler here for the wooden spoon.

PAK hasn’t been a batting power house oblate to be honest & all these batsmen mentioned here actually made the team (& sustained) on merit. Even Farhat or Butt as well (Salman abused his Captaincy status, but appointing him Captain wasn’t wrong). After them, their replacements didn’t raise the bar much to be honest & certainly they are not worse than Shan Masood. Similarly, Umar & Ahmed got dropped later, but their performance certainly doesn’t tell that it was bad investment. Umar was never given proper shot at Test spot while Ahmed still was a deserving Test opener.

We have seen Asad playing 50+ ODI, and I would say, even that was not the worst investment considering now what Asif Ali is doing in his Josh Buttler role. There was nothing much invested for Amin or Maqsood and despite being constantly bashed here in PP (including myself, must admit), Hafeez has returned lot as well, so has Malik. Won’t say, investment on any batsman was a wastage - when your options are limited, you have to manage within what you have - just like it won’t be logical if 5 years later someone comes to tell that Rubel Hossain was a bad investment by BD for a decade.

Considering the history of PAK cricket, options at hand (talent pool), and his return for the trust (investment), I’ll have to say - it’s Wahab Riaz. This is his 9th year in PAK colours, probably couple more for A team as well; but guy has almost zero contribution in a decade - I can recall one WC game against ZIM (AUS game was hot air, nothing else), probably one ODI against SAF (with bat), and one Test against ENG. He was at best decent in AUS series, may be few more ODI or T20s I can’t recall; but none can complain that Wahab wasn’t given enough chances here. More importantly, the raise of Abbas does suggest me that he might have blocked few deserving careers as well - Sohail Khan comes to mind.

Nothing personal; but after T20 WC, in my book Wahab shouldn’t have played a single LO game for PAK - he is still hanging around.

 

[shariqnoor]

I'm surprised to see Umar Akmal being rated as the worst investment. I'm a huge critic of Umar Akmal but in no way was he the worst investment. Worst investment happens when there is nothing special in the player but the team management and selectors keep on selecting him in the hope that one day he will become one of the best players in the team.

Umar Akmal was a highly talented player back in 2009 when he debuted. In fact probably one of the hottest talents globally. So there was so much going for him. When somebody has that much talent and showed it by smacking Malinga And Shane Bond in their home grounds to all parts, you would naturally give them a long rope and Pakistan did that. Nothing wrong with that. What went wrong was that Umar Akmal himself took his talent for granted and didn't work hard at all. A lot of blame goes to Umar for this and somewhat to the team management as well who didn't discipline him enough. But in the overall scheme of things, he was never the worst investment. Even today, despite everybody knowing his attitude, there are people who clamor for his return in the hope that he's a changed player and will solve the middle/lower order batting crisis.

For me, the worst investment has to be Wahab Riaz. He showed potential 1-2 years in his career when he took 5fers against England and India but right after WC 2011, it was apparent that this was a flash in the pan and nothing else. His career should've been over by 2013. But, Pakistan kept playing him on simply because they thought he could reverse swing the ball because of his pace. I don't recall one instance where Wahab's reverse swing actually made a difference to the match. Wasted a lot of talent just because Wahab had pace and 'pace is pace' as they would unfortunately say. His 2015 WC spell was another classic hot air fake spell where he didn't manage to get either Watson or Smith out. And just because of that spell he played for 3 more years all int he hope that would run through teams. I would put him at par with Mohammad Talha - all hype and nothing to show for. It's just that in the case of Talha, Pakistan realized very early that there is nothing there.

 

[MMHS]

I’ll go for a bowler here for the wooden spoon.

PAK hasn’t been a batting power house oblate to be honest & all these batsmen mentioned here actually made the team (& sustained) on merit. Even Farhat or Butt as well (Salman abused his Captaincy status, but appointing him Captain wasn’t wrong). After them, their replacements didn’t raise the bar much to be honest & certainly they are not worse than Shan Masood. Similarly, Umar & Ahmed got dropped later, but their performance certainly doesn’t tell that it was bad investment. Umar was never given proper shot at Test spot while Ahmed still was a deserving Test opener.

We have seen Asad playing 50+ ODI, and I would say, even that was not the worst investment considering now what Asif Ali is doing in his Josh Buttler role. There was nothing much invested for Amin or Maqsood and despite being constantly bashed here in PP (including myself, must admit), Hafeez has returned lot as well, so has Malik. Won’t say, investment on any batsman was a wastage - when your options are limited, you have to manage within what you have - just like it won’t be logical if 5 years later someone comes to tell that Rubel Hossain was a bad investment by BD for a decade.

Considering the history of PAK cricket, options at hand (talent pool), and his return for the trust (investment), I’ll have to say - it’s Wahab Riaz. This is his 9th year in PAK colours, probably couple more for A team as well; but guy has almost zero contribution in a decade - I can recall one WC game against ZIM (AUS game was hot air, nothing else), probably one ODI against SAF (with bat), and one Test against ENG. He was at best decent in AUS series, may be few more ODI or T20s I can’t recall; but none can complain that Wahab wasn’t given enough chances here. More importantly, the raise of Abbas does suggest me that he might have blocked few deserving careers as well - Sohail Khan comes to mind.

Nothing personal; but after T20 WC, in my book Wahab shouldn’t have played a single LO game for PAK - he is still hanging around.

After Wahab, my next 2 picks will be 2 years armband for Azhar Ali & this buddy guy Nawaz (again, nothing personal).

 

[shariqnoor]

After Wahab, my next 2 picks will be 2 years armband for Azhar Ali & this buddy guy Nawaz (again, nothing personal).

Nawaz is a good spot. I would add Faheem Ashraf too in the category.

Azhar Ali doesn't deserve to be in the worst investment category though. I have serious reservations about how he plays his cricket and his mindset but the guy has shown adaptability to become a vital cog in the Pakistan batting lineup after starting his career as a leg spinner. Has scored vital runs in Australia/England/WI. Might also have a good SA tour.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Nawaz is a good spot. I would add Faheem Ashraf too in the category.

Azhar Ali doesn't deserve to be in the worst investment category though. I have serious reservations about how he plays his cricket and his mindset but the guy has shown adaptability to become a vital cog in the Pakistan batting lineup after starting his career as a leg spinner. Has scored vital runs in Australia/England/WI. Might also have a good SA tour.

You have to have absolutely zero cricketing sense if you believe Akmal isn’t a bad investment, while Faheem Ashraf is. Some of the logic on this forum shocks the mind

 

[shariqnoor]

You have to have absolutely zero cricketing sense if you believe Akmal isn’t a bad investment, while Faheem Ashraf is. Some of the logic on this forum shocks the mind

Did you even read why I said Umar Akmal wasn't a bad investment? And of course you wouldn't find Faheem Ashraf a bad investment right now because he's playing. However in the 1.5 years he's been in the team, there has been no man of the match performances from him. Probably just the one I think - against Zim. Time will tell who was right on Faheem Ashraf.

 

[Ummii]

Umar Amin

 

[Usman Chadda]

Did you even read why I said Umar Akmal wasn't a bad investment? And of course you wouldn't find Faheem Ashraf a bad investment right now because he's playing. However in the 1.5 years he's been in the team, there has been no man of the match performances from him. Probably just the one I think - against Zim. Time will tell who was right on Faheem Ashraf.

If time will tell, then how is he a bad investment? He's not even considered as an investment yet, considering he has only played a handful of matches so far.

Yes I read why you said Akmal wasn't a bad investment, and I suggest you brush up your definition of 'investment'. Umar Akmal is a case study for bad investment, and so is Ahmed Shehzad.

 

[Pete Rose]

Afridi

 

[Rana]

I always enjoy the "senior player" tag.

Their seniors at being failures.

Exactly. The guy started to consider himself a 'Senior' once he got married to the selector's daughter even though he had ordinary experience and no real substantial performances. Just continued to go down hill. He made fair points that he was being selected before he was married to this young girl, but didn't ever explain why he became a completely different player since then.

Faisal Iqbal also, biggest tragedy in Pakistan selection history!

 

[Titan24]

And some guys here are naming new youngsters who havent even played 20 matches in a single format as bad investments. One of those has taken wicket in every single match in his opening spell in the last T20 series.

 

[RyanRyan10]

Shahid Afridi?

Played most intl matches for Pak

Atleast in the 1st half of his career he was neither a batsman nor a bowler
Was glorified just because of his 6 hitting ability
Then in the 2nd half his batting was worse,though bowling improved a bit but he never played as a frontline spinner
He was good for Pak team under Misbah which was a quite mediocre one
But I don't understand how he kept getting chances in the Pak team of late 90s-early 2000s which comprised of some world class players

he has been glorified as if he is among the best cricketers Pak have produced and some youngsters see him as a role model

 

[Barragan]

asad shafiq, without a doubt.

He has played 62% of his matches in Asia and has batted at no. 6 for the majority of his career, when the bowlers get tired and the ball doesn't do much either, but still averages a dreadful 39 or always hovering around the low 40's mark - absolutely shocking!

Compare him to Azhar Ali, who bats as an opener or at no. 3, when the bowlers are fresh and the ball is doing all sorts, but yet averages a solid 44 or so and you see how much superior he is to shafiq.

shafiq is 32 now and I don't think he has ever played a match-winning or match-saving knock in his career and only scores, when his place in the side is in danger or someone else performs alongside him.

Definition of mediocrity!

 

[shariqnoor]

If time will tell, then how is he a bad investment? He's not even considered as an investment yet, considering he has only played a handful of matches so far.

Yes I read why you said Akmal wasn't a bad investment, and I suggest you brush up your definition of 'investment'. Umar Akmal is a case study for bad investment, and so is Ahmed Shehzad.

If I remember correctly, back in Jan 2018 when Faheem was only 3-4 months old in intl. cricket, I said that the team management needs to back Faheem even if he falters for a while as Pakistan needs his batting more than his bowling. I was a backer of Faheem. But in the past 10 months Faheem hasn't progressed as much as he should've. Of course he has a lot of time to prove his detractors wrong but the way he's going, unfortunately he isn't offering much to the team except opening up a poultry farm.

Also just wanted to flip this and ask you that if someone had asked this same question back in 2010 when Umar Akmal was also only 1.5 years into his intl. career, would you have said Umar Akmal is the case study of bad investment? He has had 14-15 MoM awards in his career. Wahab has only probably 2-3 during the same tenure and somehow Umar Akmal and not Wahab is the worst investment?

 

[MMHS]

Nawaz is a good spot. I would add Faheem Ashraf too in the category.

Azhar Ali doesn't deserve to be in the worst investment category though. I have serious reservations about how he plays his cricket and his mindset but the guy has shown adaptability to become a vital cog in the Pakistan batting lineup after starting his career as a leg spinner. Has scored vital runs in Australia/England/WI. Might also have a good SA tour.

My point was Azhar as captain of ODI team - absolute wastage of 2 years between 2 WCs. It's not like PAK didn't have any other options, just after one WC, rather he was brought back to ODI team out of wilderness as Captain. Fahim's time is not over yet - so far, he is delivering something and has shown improvement, therefore he might not be the greatest talent, but the investment is worthy, specially considering next 2 ICC events are in UK & AUS.

Umar was under invested.

He still holds a stats of 36/65 in 30+ Test career, almost entirely played in AUS, ENG, NZ & WIN; and played last of his Tests probably 7+ years back at 21. He still holds a FC career of 43/75 stats for over 6K runs (should be 48/80 in QeA), in an era when <35/50 sort of FC stats have earned few others almost a decade long career.

His ODI stats are still like 35/86, mostly from No. 6/5, and these sats are not built in last 3-4 years when the ODI stats had been artificially inflated by 10-12% at least. That ODI stats should be like diamond for this PAK side, considering "Josh Buttler" role-play by Asif Ali these days. His ICC events' stats are like 50/90; his stats in tournament Final & SF is like 45/100. He took PAK to 2009 CT SF (would have taken to Final as well had one more batsman could have shown some guts or had YK not dropped a sitter), was instrumental to beat AUS in a WC game after 12 years in 2011.

In last 3 years, he has played 5 ODI games for a stats of 33/83 from 6 - and these 5 innings are in AUS. ABOVE ALL, I can categorically say that Umar Akmal has been floated around the batting order more than any one I can recall in cricket, for such a short career - but some how they managed to give him a grand total of 1 innings (28@116) SR, at No. 3 (& 6 at No. 7, 1 at No. 8), and never opened. On top of that, guy has kept wicket in ODI to give a good balance in XI.

He holds 27/123 stats in T20, sometimes as WK and still has three of the most clutch innings played by PAK batsmen in T20 - 94 (AUS) at Dhaka, 64 at Cape Town & 64 (AUS) at Birmingham. His stats at No. 3 is 58/118 for 5 innings with 1 MoM (similar stats has made Babar No. 1 ranked player in T20 in a much higher scoring era) - and his stats includes a 35/135 career in 20 ICC World Cup games, which to me is the major indicator of capability - these Jason Mo led WIN or World XI or that triangular in ZIM are basically distractions, availing some false bravado for fan base.

Most people don't like UA, partially because of his own issues (which had been over blown by few people including Waquar), partially for the grudge from his brother's W keeping ( ) and a big chunk of passionate Bhakts here are threatened by him for Sarfraz, who'll never be a cricketer, remotely close to Umar. Had he been Indian, by now would have been one of the greats of contemporary cricket - regular in 3 formats. For this generation of PAK team, he should have been the MVP of the side : a special A+ category for central contract, and the best all-rounder of LO game for PAK in 2010s.

Hope pankha base won't put me in place for telling some harsh facts here.

 

[MMHS]

^^ I missed another one - his 43* against SAF was instrumental to take PAK to 2012 T20 WC SF.

 

[shariqnoor]

My point was Azhar as captain of ODI team - absolute wastage of 2 years between 2 WCs. It's not like PAK didn't have any other options, just after one WC, rather he was brought back to ODI team out of wilderness as Captain. Fahim's time is not over yet - so far, he is delivering something and has shown improvement, therefore he might not be the greatest talent, but the investment is worthy, specially considering next 2 ICC events are in UK & AUS.

Umar was under invested.

He still holds a stats of 36/65 in 30+ Test career, almost entirely played in AUS, ENG, NZ & WIN; and played last of his Tests probably 7+ years back at 21. He still holds a FC career of 43/75 stats for over 6K runs (should be 48/80 in QeA), in an era when <35/50 sort of FC stats have earned few others almost a decade long career.

His ODI stats are still like 35/86, mostly from No. 6/5, and these sats are not built in last 3-4 years when the ODI stats had been artificially inflated by 10-12% at least. That ODI stats should be like diamond for this PAK side, considering "Josh Buttler" role-play by Asif Ali these days. His ICC events' stats are like 50/90; his stats in tournament Final & SF is like 45/100. He took PAK to 2009 CT SF (would have taken to Final as well had one more batsman could have shown some guts or had YK not dropped a sitter), was instrumental to beat AUS in a WC game after 12 years in 2011.

In last 3 years, he has played 5 ODI games for a stats of 33/83 from 6 - and these 5 innings are in AUS. ABOVE ALL, I can categorically say that Umar Akmal has been floated around the batting order more than any one I can recall in cricket, for such a short career - but some how they managed to give him a grand total of 1 innings (28@116) SR, at No. 3 (& 6 at No. 7, 1 at No. 8), and never opened. On top of that, guy has kept wicket in ODI to give a good balance in XI.

He holds 27/123 stats in T20, sometimes as WK and still has three of the most clutch innings played by PAK batsmen in T20 - 94 (AUS) at Dhaka, 64 at Cape Town & 64 (AUS) at Birmingham. His stats at No. 3 is 58/118 for 5 innings with 1 MoM (similar stats has made Babar No. 1 ranked player in T20 in a much higher scoring era) - and his stats includes a 35/135 career in 20 ICC World Cup games, which to me is the major indicator of capability - these Jason Mo led WIN or World XI or that triangular in ZIM are basically distractions, availing some false bravado for fan base.

Most people don't like UA, partially because of his own issues (which had been over blown by few people including Waquar), partially for the grudge from his brother's W keeping ( ) and a big chunk of passionate Bhakts here are threatened by him for Sarfraz, who'll never be a cricketer, remotely close to Umar. Had he been Indian, by now would have been one of the greats of contemporary cricket - regular in 3 formats. For this generation of PAK team, he should have been the MVP of the side : a special A+ category for central contract, and the best all-rounder of LO game for PAK in 2010s.

Hope pankha base won't put me in place for telling some harsh facts here.

Oh yes if we're talking about Azhar Ali in terms of ODI captaincy investment. Worst decision ever.

I wholeheartedly agree that Umar Akmal is far far removed from being the worst investment. But I will put a lot of blame on Umar Akmal (about 75%) for ruining his own career. He had everything going for him and he ruined it simply because of his laziness to work hard and improving his batting intelligence. His regular shifting of batting position was the fault of the team's management but if you're an A-lister, shifting of batting positions should not be that detrimental to you that you lose your place in the team.

 

[Rana]

Shahid Afridi?

Played most intl matches for Pak

Atleast in the 1st half of his career he was neither a batsman nor a bowler
Was glorified just because of his 6 hitting ability
Then in the 2nd half his batting was worse,though bowling improved a bit but he never played as a frontline spinner
He was good for Pak team under Misbah which was a quite mediocre one
But I don't understand how he kept getting chances in the Pak team of late 90s-early 2000s which comprised of some world class players

he has been glorified as if he is among the best cricketers Pak have produced and some youngsters see him as a role model

He has plenty of MOTM awards to his name. A match winner on his day, cannot say he was a bad investment. All teams in the world would love to have a player like him!

 

[Rana]

Also from a marketing perspective, Shahid Afridi is one of if not the biggest draw in Pakistan cricket history. The guy was never a bad investment for PCB and has played/ been dropped on merit throughout his life.

 

[MMHS]

Oh yes if we're talking about Azhar Ali in terms of ODI captaincy investment. Worst decision ever.

I wholeheartedly agree that Umar Akmal is far far removed from being the worst investment. But I will put a lot of blame on Umar Akmal (about 75%) for ruining his own career. He had everything going for him and he ruined it simply because of his laziness to work hard and improving his batting intelligence. His regular shifting of batting position was the fault of the team's management but if you're an A-lister, shifting of batting positions should not be that detrimental to you that you lose your place in the team.

I'll put 25% on him.

He won an effective QF against SAF in 2010 WC (in WIN), from No. 5; next game (SF, which Ajmal blew to Hussey), he was sent at 3 (for a 56* of 35 - was destined to win MoM, but for Hussey) ........ very next game, 3 months later, he was sent at 6 against same AUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He has issues, but one should handle precious but fragile masterpieces with care - PCB & it's think tank played goli danda with that fragile thing; what do you expect, it'll get tempered & stronger?

 

[SarfiBabarHaris]

I like him as a person. He is a nice guy but i think Asad Shafiq was a bad investment when there were 3-5 batsmen easily better than him. And we continue to persist with him.

Now that we have invested so much on him he should really start scoring big.

 

[topspin]

I'll put 25% on him.

He won an effective QF against SAF in 2010 WC (in WIN), from No. 5; next game (SF, which Ajmal blew to Hussey), he was sent at 3 (for a 56* of 35 - was destined to win MoM, but for Hussey) ........ very next game, 3 months later, he was sent at 6 against same AUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He has issues, but one should handle precious but fragile masterpieces with care - PCB & it's think tank played goli danda with that fragile thing; what do you expect, it'll get tempered & stronger?

Totally agree - to be more specific it was Misbah and Waqar had no grasp of player management. Umar Akmal and Shehzad aren't the only unusal characters you'll find in international cricket. The latter should have been dropped earlier for good rather than later it must be said.

KP is another example who always gets a bad rap on here. Michael Vaughan referred to his case as a struggle of England's ability to manage their players. He also gave another example in Flintoff who played for him under his captaincy - he mentioned was hard to manage but because he was a top captain he knew how to manage different characters like KP and Flintoff and get the best out of them.

Misbah and Waqar were the worst when it came to player management - for them it was about everyone being quiet, good boy obedient slaves. Dropping Umar Akmal at the expense of Shafiq was just unforgivable really.

Umar Akmal still managed to average 35 after his first round of tours in England, Aus and NZ but was given just 1 test in UAE. Shafiq on the other hand, having played half of his games on batting paradises in UAE remains to be a sub 40 average batsman.

 

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

I hope that KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya don't turn out to be bad investments for India.

 

[Madplayer]

Asad shafiq has been a worse investment than anyone in last 15 years. What is he giving back to the team now? Zilch.