"In other countries, they don’t press the panic button when they lose" : Sarfaraz Ahmed

[MenInG]

KARACHI: The embattled Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed wants his batsmen to take responsibility during the upcoming tough tour of South Africa.

Talking on the sidelines of a book launching of a senior sports journalist, Sarfraz said on Sunday: “We batted extremely poorly in the series against New Zealand and paid heavily for it. The batsmen have to take responsibility and play long innings in the South Africa series. This is one big issue that constantly troubled us in the 10 Test matches Pakistan have played since the retirement of Younis [Khan] and Misbah [-ul-Haq].”

The wicket-keeper/batsman said the tour of South Africa would be very demanding and that Pakistan have to improve their performance drastically to challenge the Proteas. “We did mistakes against New Zealand and they were lot of them. But on the upcoming tour we’ll try to avoid them and play positive cricket against South Africa.”

Sarfraz lamented that whenever Pakistan lost, the captain was held responsible for it. “When we win people usually say Pakistan played brilliantly but when the team loses the same people start blaming the captain. This mindset has got to change because in other countries they don’t press the panic button when they lose.”

Meanwhile, Sarfraz said the cricket board won’t waste much time in removing him as Test captain if Pakistan keep on losing. “The authorities [PCB} will remove me without further delay if the team lose because of me. It’s not just me the entire team has to step up and good cricket.”

https://www.dawn.com/news/1450451/batsmen-must-take-responsibility-says-sarfraz

 

[Usman Chadda]

KARACHI: The embattled Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed wants his batsmen to take responsibility during the upcoming tough tour of South Africa.

Talking on the sidelines of a book launching of a senior sports journalist, Sarfraz said on Sunday: “We batted extremely poorly in the series against New Zealand and paid heavily for it. The batsmen have to take responsibility and play long innings in the South Africa series. This is one big issue that constantly troubled us in the 10 Test matches Pakistan have played since the retirement of Younis [Khan] and Misbah [-ul-Haq].”

The wicket-keeper/batsman said the tour of South Africa would be very demanding and that Pakistan have to improve their performance drastically to challenge the Proteas. “We did mistakes against New Zealand and they were lot of them. But on the upcoming tour we’ll try to avoid them and play positive cricket against South Africa.”

Sarfraz lamented that whenever Pakistan lost, the captain was held responsible for it. “When we win people usually say Pakistan played brilliantly but when the team loses the same people start blaming the captain. This mindset has got to change because in other countries they don’t press the panic button when they lose.”

Meanwhile, Sarfraz said the cricket board won’t waste much time in removing him as Test captain if Pakistan keep on losing. “The authorities [PCB} will remove me without further delay if the team lose because of me. It’s not just me the entire team has to step up and good cricket.”

https://www.dawn.com/news/1450451/batsmen-must-take-responsibility-says-sarfraz

How on earth can you even think of playing positive cricket when you'll have Imam-ul-haq taking strike for the first ball of the Pakistan innings against Dale Steyn? I have hopes from Fakhar only, the rest of these losers will scratch around for 10-15 balls and nick one to the slips.

 

[aukhan]

What a shameless man. People vilified Misbah and Azhar when they lost. What was he expecting after series of bad results in UAE? His entitled attitude is a hurdle in our progress.

 

[cricketindiafan]

What? Which captain does not get the stick when the team loses and especially when the captain's performance is below par?

EVery time I read these statements from Sarfaraz, he reminds me more and more of Dhoni the test captain from 2011 Eng tour onwards. Almost similar statements.

 

[Markhor]

Which country would retain a non-performing captain that panics under the slightest bit of pressure ?

 

[shariqnoor]

“We did mistakes against New Zealand and they were lot of them. But on the upcoming tour we’ll try to avoid them and play positive cricket against South Africa.”

Didn't he exactly say this when Pakistan lost the first test against NZ that we will avoid making mistakes? Now after a series loss, he again says we'll try to avoid making mistakes. This is an insult to all the fans. After the SA series loss, he will again say the exact same thing.

 

[shariqnoor]

Play Positive Cricket??

Playing at less than 2.2 RPO consciously is not positive cricket.

 

[Titan24]

Firstly Sarfaraz should realize its not about loosing its about losing 2 out of 3 home series after close to a 6-7 years. Even in other countries when captain loses home series he is under a lot of pressure.

Its also not just about losing its about making some poor choices as captain of the team along with coach and selector and that also not once but multiple times. There was no visible strategy for any of the opposition batsman or bowlers.

He is still thinking about captaincy when even his place in the team is in danger zone considering his own performance has gone down big time since he became the captain. So definitely a lot of things happening at once.

 

[MMHS]

He has played cricket and led teams with buddies surrounding him and from childhood, he must have been head & shoulders above as a player, which has created a sort of entitlement in his mind. Like his Karachi club team members, he treats his PCT members and his attitude in international game is also like someone beyond question or criticism. Here he is unable to cope with the criticism, because he has never faced much or any on field challenge.

This’ll make him afraid of losing and more defensive against any criticism. Few weeks back, he got angry when some jurno asked him about his fitness - it’ll become common in every press conference after a loss. Need to step down/sacked as early as possible from Test and ODI Captaincy. At this state of mind & individual performance, he’ll drag PAK out of WC within first 5-6 games.

 

[the Great Khan]

Sack him..we need Shan Masood in charge right now..

 

[Abdul]

This is rich coming from him )

 

[Hasan123]

When we are losing games at home why shouldn't we panic ? And when the captain isn't performing for months why should we not be critical of your performance ?

Seem as though he can't take a bit of critiscm, shows that he isn't mentally strong enough for the job.