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The biggest letdown in Pakistan cricket?

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Saj

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There have been many Pakistani cricketers over the years who have been hyped up and promised to be the next superstar. However they have flattered to deceive and not delivered what they promised.

Who do you think has been the biggest letdown in Pakistan cricket and why?
 
Was only born in 1999 so can only include players I have seen since I started following cricket. I would say Nasir Jamshed. The guy scored centuries against India and was also getting runs against the likes of Australia. He lost his form significantly and has been involved in lots of controversies.

Sharjeel Khan could also be on that list, wonder if he will come back when his ban is over and if he does, if he can rediscover his form.
 
I'd say Umar Akmal. Had all the skills and abilities required to be a top class batsman. Just didn't apply himself and was always mentally weak. No lie tho he has one of the best straight bat shots in cricket.
 
For me it has to be M. Sami. Fast bowlers are rare and special. He had pace, swing and agression and I mean natural agression you want to see in a pace bowler.

He could bowl outswing to the right hander with the new ball at 150Ks plus. With the old bowl he would bowl inswinging yorkers at 150Ks.

Really cant understand how failed big time.

Tragedy.
 
Mohammad Asif - only if he had a brain and maturity outside the field.
 
pakistani pride said:
For me it has to be M. Sami. Fast bowlers are rare and special. He had pace, swing and agression and I mean natural agression you want to see in a pace bowler.

He could bowl outswing to the right hander with the new ball at 150Ks plus. With the old bowl he would bowl inswinging yorkers at 150Ks.

Really cant understand how failed big time.

Tragedy.
Click to expand...

He had a decent ODI career, to be fair. Should have gotten a longer go.
 
Most people would say Akmal/Sami/Nazir - however their attributes were only defects in attitude. They played to their full potential according to themselves, its just people had unrealistic expectations from them.

Biggest let downs have to be
Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir...

What could've happened in 5 years time had they been around. How they 'let down' the country in that time.

What our team was shaping upto be, and what happened as a result of that. TTF galore..

Salman butt was turning out to be a decent captain with some fantastic away wins in his record.
 
Has to be Amir, if that 2010 saga didn't happen he'd have around 250 Test wickets and 200 ODI wickets by now.
 
Probably Asif, he could have ended his career in the pantheon of all time greats. I pick him because every time he had the ball in his hand, magic happened. He was a lot more consistent compared to the other let downs which is why he has been selected, he has been his own worst enemy. The others are also victims of their own deeds but have only flirted with excellence while Asif made his opponents blush. At the same time, his charismatic and polarising aura made him.
 
It has to be Umar Akmal for me. When Pakistan needed a young batsmen with the talent to score runs quickly with good technique, Umar burst on to the scene. His hundred against Sri Lanka and New Zealand in the early part of his career promised quite a lot from the youngster but he faltered big time. Even though Pakistan now have Babar Azam, Umar Akmal was a perfect combo of aggression and technique. Too bad that he just did not have the mental toughness to play at this level. He probably is Pakistan's biggest loss over the last few years.
 
waleed88 said:
Most people would say Akmal/Sami/Nazir - however their attributes were only defects in attitude. They played to their full potential according to themselves, its just people had unrealistic expectations from them.

Biggest let downs have to be
Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir...

What could've happened in 5 years time had they been around. How they 'let down' the country in that time.

What our team was shaping upto be, and what happened as a result of that. TTF galore..

Salman butt was turning out to be a decent captain with some fantastic away wins in his record.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Those 3 ruined their careers by fixing and created big holes in the team at crucial time.
 
Umair Akmal faking injury in Aus when Kamran was dropped was one of the most shameful moves by him prior to his downhill phase.
 
Asif is the one. Others don't even come close.
 
Umar akmal is still not lost cause, he still has age on his side.He just needs to get his act together!
Mohammad asif for sure is big let down!
 
Oligochaetes said:
My thoughts exactly. Those 3 ruined their careers by fixing and created big holes in the team at crucial time.
Click to expand...

Not to mention the diplomatic and foreign isolation we suffered as a result of that, no tours in England and Australia for more than 6 years. We lost England as an alternate 'home' venue to host our games.
 
dauntless said:
Umar akmal is still not lost cause, he still has age on his side.He just needs to get his act together!
Click to expand...

The year is 3029, human life has spanned the cosmos, illness is eradicated and intergalactic travel is common. Still, from somewhere among the stars, the whispers of Umar Akmal and his alleged talent eventually coming to fruition can be heard.

It's time to move past that self proclaimed water balloon.
 
Imran Nazir, Mohammad Asif, Umar Akmal and Raza Hasan.
 
Umar Akmal - he was so pleasing to see when he first burst onto the scene, with lots of potential. And now...
 
I would actually say Shoaib Akhtar. He still made some great contributions but all this served to do was show us how much more he could have given. Had enough talent to be the greatest fast bowler of all time. But was just too lazy.
 
Match-fixers and chuckers. Not being good enough is not letting the country down, but cheating the nation and the system most certainly is.
 
Very big list & Sami tops it closely followed by Nazir & maaaany more Nasir Jamshid & Umar Akmal from current crop... hell even Asif & Butt
If there was a “What if” thread then Mohammed Zahid ‘,Mo Akram , ‘obviously not a let down’ would be my top 2
 
Easily Mohammad Sami. What an athlete!! Never understood why he couldn't cut it at top flight cricket.
 
Barring match fixing, which everyone else has covered, as a neutral, I would think the in-fighting, jealousy, groupism and selfishness in the Pakistan teams of past has been the biggest let down, preventing them from winning a series in SA, Aus and WI (until recently!). I can recall many moments from 90's when Pakistan were almost close to winning/drawing a series but bottled in the decider.

With an attack like Pakistan's, 20 wickets should have been a piece of cake. It obviously had to be more than talent.
 
Imran Nazir. His timing, power hitting ability and range of strokes used to make my jaw drop. We wanted him to succeed so badly that we played him in 79 odis, but the investment didn't pay off.
 
asif.... the biggest let down in park cricket for his ill intentions
afridi... for being brainless
 
Akmals with their shenanigans

Match/spot-fixers

Followed closely by PCB chairmen post Lt. Zia
 
1. Asif
2. Aamir
3. Mohammad Zahid(?)
4. Afridi
5. Sami
6. Gul
 
waleed88 said:
Most people would say Akmal/Sami/Nazir - however their attributes were only defects in attitude. They played to their full potential according to themselves, its just people had unrealistic expectations from them.

Biggest let downs have to be
Mohammad Asif, Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir...

What could've happened in 5 years time had they been around. How they 'let down' the country in that time.

What our team was shaping upto be, and what happened as a result of that. TTF galore..

Salman butt was turning out to be a decent captain with some fantastic away wins in his record.
Click to expand...

Salman Butt is / was not a good player at all.

Amir and Asif world class.
 
Basit Ali
Aamer Nazir
Shahid Afridi
Azhar Mahmood
Abdul Razzaq
Imran Nazir
Yasir Hameed
Inzamam
Mohammad Sami
Mohammad Asif
Umar Akmal
Hasan Raza (? maybe)
There was a lot of talent squandered in the era from 1994 to 2003.

In terms of absolute loss it was Asif (and maybe Basit) since he was of proven pedigree
 
pakistani pride said:
Salman Butt is / was not a good player at all.

Amir and Asif world class.
Click to expand...

Salman Butt was a good captain, decent away wins against Australia and England. Along with good performances against Australia in England.

The captaincy did affect his performance in Test Matches vs England, but he is better than his stats suggest in England.

Ofcourse we look in hindsight now, but he was given good reviews for his captaincy in the wins
 
Last edited:
For me the biggest let down was Shoaib Akhtar. 50% his fault an 50% the way he was handled.

This was a bowler who should have done a lot lot more. He could take wickets at will but due to fitness, attitude and mismanagement he only achieved about 40% of what he should have in my opinion.
 
Liverpool_Faizan said:
For me the biggest let down was Shoaib Akhtar. 50% his fault an 50% the way he was handled.

This was a bowler who should have done a lot lot more. He could take wickets at will but due to fitness, attitude and mismanagement he only achieved about 40% of what he should have in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Except that he had natural deficiencies hindering his fitness, flat foot, knock-knees which would fill up with fluid due to hyper-extension in his joints, and bronchitis amongst them

He over-achieved for the country given his physical conditions.
 
Mohammad sami.

Beautiful run up.

Though he has been great in t20 cricket.

Umar akmal i knew was to fail the way he played
 
MenInG said:
Think Afridi and Razzaq did well for themselves?
Click to expand...
Razzaq's numbers in both formats do not justify his ability and same goes for afridi.
Although they have achieved quite a lot but
it is much less than what was expected of them.
Razzaq came into the scene as a bowler who can swing ball at lively pace, a promising batsman who can bat in the top order as well as late middle order. But later he began to trundle and lost his track,his batting avg is too low for a promising allrounder.
 
Shahid afridi. Couldve been so much more. Also umar akmal and nasir jamshed were big let downs.
 
GoUgandaCranes said:
The whole 90's generation was a massive let down.
Click to expand...
This.

waleed88 said:
Salman Butt was a good captain, decent away wins against Australia and England. Along with good performances against Australia in England.

The captaincy did affect his performance in Test Matches vs England, but he is better than his stats suggest in England.

Ofcourse we look in hindsight now, but he was given good reviews for his captaincy in the wins
Click to expand...

Butt also allowed England to score 446 after we reduced them to 102-7 at Lord's with Stuart Broad of all people scoring 169.

He went on the defensive too early in that game. He failed to lead from the front with the bat against England as we faced one humiliating defeat after another - so much so we had to call out an SOS to Mohammad Yousuf who looked a class above everyone at The Oval.
 
There are many cricketers that have played for Pakistan that have been let downs.
 
In bowling.
Asif and sami and 5 year loss of amir.

Batting imran nazir, asim kamal, yasir hameed, mohammed wasim, fawad alam.

As far as junior akmal concern, he got almost 200 chances as compare to other deserving players and he still failed to deliver. Moreover, he is a coward who throw his wicket whenever there is pressure situation. He played just ncz of couple of flock innings and a great backing of corrupt mafia.
 
Not of his own doing but Muhammad Zahid had everything to be a great fast bowler had he not gotten injured. Muhammad Akram also did not fulfil his potential. Muhammad Wasim the batsman also seemed to be ignored by the selectors from what I have read. Think he moved to New Zealand hoping to play for them only for the PCB to falsely promise he would be considered.
 
From the past, Nasir Jamshed. Had some good performances when he initially played for pak as an opener, then he just faded away..

Mohammed Irfan, he's a giant, and when he first came on the scene I thought we now had a game changer in our team.. but he can barely manage a few overs..

Anwar Ali? After that U19 world cup performance vs India, didn't do much else..
 
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