"The 'surgery' should actually be performed on the selection committee itself": Shahid Afridi

[Cricket Warrior]

Shahid Afridi criticized Pakistan selection committee after series defeat against Bangladesh:

"The World Cup performances were right in front of you and after that we lost the series 2-1 to Bangladesh. In my opinion, I should be the one feeling sorry for the selection committee. There is a reason for this: you are all playing so much cricket yet you have no idea who should be the captain for which format. You need to take a firm decision.

In the name of 'surgery,' you have picked up new players who have only played a few first-class matches. Our domestic cricket is not at a standard where these players can just come in and take a place in the Pakistan team. On the other hand you have sidelined seniors who had the right to be there. If they don't have T20 performances they still have very good performances in One-Day cricket.

As part of this 'surgery,' you have pushed out seniors with good One-Day records and brought in youngsters who have barely played domestic or first-class matches. Neither is the standard of our domestic cricket high enough, nor is the standard of these players sufficient to earn a spot in the national side. You are just handing out the Pakistan cap to anyone. This is not what you call surgery. The surgery should actually be performed on the selection committee itself"

 

[JaDed]

Zero insight as usual.
Hafees or Sohail Tanvir have better takes .

 

[shaz619]

Zero insight as usual.
Hafees or Sohail Tanvir have better takes .

What have they said that makes more sense on this topic, neither of those guys are known for the number of beatings Afridi gave India

 

[JaDed]

What have they said that makes more sense on this topic, neither of those guys are known for the number of beatings Afridi gave India

I remember Afridi couldn’t even hit stumps against India in 2007.. demoted himself in 2011 semis for which Imran Khan called him out..but sure.

on the topic: Their analysis is way more acute than Afridi’s

 

[shaz619]

I remember Afridi couldn’t even hit stumps against India in 2007.. demoted himself in 2011 semis for which Imran Khan called him out..but sure.

on the topic: Their analysis is way more acute than Afridi’s

I knew it, somebody is still sour about Afridi stripping you lot nanga unlike the others

 

[JaDed]

I knew it, somebody is still sour about Afridi stripping you lot nanga unlike the others

Sure..

 

[Rana]

he’s gone senile and everything he says is with a political motive.

He randomly comes out of the blue at times with odd takes against the norm or mood and perception. He does it because the underlying agenda is to ensure his own son in law is preserved in the side or as captain.


When Babar was being removed from captaincy, and there were discussions of Shaheen also being shelved around 2024 for poor performances…he would try to promote Rizwan to become the skipper because he knew by doing this he will safegaurd his son in law in the side.


I’ve stopped trusting a word he says

 

[Hyder]

But he isnt wrong. Earning Pakistan cap is so easy rn. Abdul samad, saad, ghouri. What are there performances to get selected. Its okay you can select 1 player based on eye test and seeing natural flair but to select whole team just randomly aint gonna work.

Irfan khan niazi
Kamran
Saud
Hassan Nawaz
Haseebullah
Rohail(idk how much he progressed but he has been on ropes for ages)
Nafay
Aamir Jamal
Khurram Shehzad

These are the players you debuted and didnt give long run and this series should have been for them
Not to give cap to players who wont play another match in next 2 3 years unless they miraculously churn out goated performances in psl.
Shamyl looked undercooked
Saad isnt half the player what useless shadab is rn
Arafat minhas was sent into oblivion
Jahandad khan also debuted against zim iirc

There should be continuity. Not just handing out pakistan cap as if its candy.

 

[Cric1234]

But he isnt wrong. Earning Pakistan cap is so easy rn. Abdul samad, saad, ghouri. What are there performances to get selected. Its okay you can select 1 player based on eye test and seeing natural flair but to select whole team just randomly aint gonna work.

Irfan khan niazi
Kamran
Saud
Hassan Nawaz
Haseebullah
Rohail(idk how much he progressed but he has been on ropes for ages)
Nafay
Aamir Jamal
Khurram Shehzad

These are the players you debuted and didnt give long run and this series should have been for them
Not to give cap to players who wont play another match in next 2 3 years unless they miraculously churn out goated performances in psl.
Shamyl looked undercooked
Saad isnt half the player what useless shadab is rn
Arafat minhas was sent into oblivion
Jahandad khan also debuted against zim iirc

There should be continuity. Not just handing out pakistan cap as if its candy.

They should only have selected Maaz and Ghouri.... Why Ghouri because of Rizwans decline in batting and finding a keeper who plays wherever the teams needs him...... not someone who demands no 5 or whatever position and then underperforms.

 

[Bhaijaan]

I knew it, somebody is still sour about Afridi stripping you lot nanga unlike the others

They forgot the Kanpor massacre

 

[sweep_shot]

Zero insight as usual.
Hafees or Sohail Tanvir have better takes .

Can you pinpoint anything wrong in his statement?

Looks like you are just salty about Afridi.

 

[SportsWarrior]

What have they said that makes more sense on this topic, neither of those guys are known for the number of beatings Afridi gave India

lol, have you seen his record against India? I watched his whole career and many matches live. Both in ODI and T20Is his record against India is noting great. In ODIs while batting, he averages slightly higher than his career average at a lower strike rate than his career strike rate. In bowling his average is something like 60, over 60+ matches. So he was a nobody in bowling and just as good/bad a batsman against India as he was against everyone else.

In T20Is his record against India is a joke and worse than a club cricketer, a batting average of 7.5 at a scintillating strike rate of 96 and a bowling average of 52. If Pakistanis consider this has beating, i have nothing to say.

 

[SportsWarrior]

I remember Afridi couldn’t even hit stumps against India in 2007.. demoted himself in 2011 semis for which Imran Khan called him out..but sure.

on the topic: Their analysis is way more acute than Afridi’s

he was absoultely useless against India in T20is and in ODI just an average bat and an atrocious bowlers.

 

[Mohraheem]

Misbah ul haq

 

[FastBowlingAllrounder]

But he isnt wrong. Earning Pakistan cap is so easy rn. Abdul samad, saad, ghouri. What are there performances to get selected. Its okay you can select 1 player based on eye test and seeing natural flair but to select whole team just randomly aint gonna work.

Irfan khan niazi
Kamran
Saud
Hassan Nawaz
Haseebullah
Rohail(idk how much he progressed but he has been on ropes for ages)
Nafay
Aamir Jamal
Khurram Shehzad

These are the players you debuted and didnt give long run and this series should have been for them
Not to give cap to players who wont play another match in next 2 3 years unless they miraculously churn out goated performances in psl.
Shamyl looked undercooked
Saad isnt half the player what useless shadab is rn
Arafat minhas was sent into oblivion
Jahandad khan also debuted against zim iirc

There should be continuity. Not just handing out pakistan cap as if its candy.

He isn’t wrong but if his solution is to go back to “seniors” then he isn’t right either.

 

[Rana]

For all his impulsiveness and recklessness, one thing for certain is that Shahid Afridi is a damn good businessman.

I feel even Shaheen Afridi was more of a business investment. He will protect his business assets at all costs.

 

[RahulBose]

What have they said that makes more sense on this topic, neither of those guys are known for the number of beatings Afridi gave India

Is that the sole aim, beating India?

That probably is the reason why you guys never beat India in important matches, you want it way too much.

Puts unnecessary pressure on the game and the natural mind body connection goes haywire.

 

[RizwanT20Champ]

What your views on Afridi, he has spanked India so often that Inds are out here in droves trying to talk smack about a man who owned them when he was playing. Kanpur and Chennai must be fresh on their minds.

 

[IndCricFan]

Someone worthy enough, please put the data of so great Afridi against India. I understand that's not the topic, but it seems some losers are more interested in past( even though its murky), but moving in future.

 

[GOSH11]

Spot on from Afridi

The lack of coherence in selection is alarming.

 

[Mesozoic]

Someone worthy enough, please put the data of so great Afridi against India. I understand that's not the topic, but it seems some losers are more interested in past( even though its murky), but moving in future.

Afridi smashed us in a few useless bilaterals but in the two biggest games of his life.... against India....he shat his pants at the Wanderers and cried in Mohali like a mauled rat.

Lost 9 WC games against India... winning zero.

He's the human form of Pakistan cricket against India...useless performances at low stake games and crapping the trousers on the world stage.

 

[shaz619]

lol, have you seen his record against India? I watched his whole career and many matches live. Both in ODI and T20Is his record against India is noting great. In ODIs while batting, he averages slightly higher than his career average at a lower strike rate than his career strike rate. In bowling his average is something like 60, over 60+ matches. So he was a nobody in bowling and just as good/bad a batsman against India as he was against everyone else.

In T20Is his record against India is a joke and worse than a club cricketer, a batting average of 7.5 at a scintillating strike rate of 96 and a bowling average of 52. If Pakistanis consider this has beating, i have nothing to say.

What have Hafeez & Tanvir done in comparison? Afridi had a long career and was inconsistent, but across all formats he had some memorable performances against India & I value the impact even more now - both Babar & Rizwan would statistically be better T20 players then Afridi according to you , that average doesn’t capture what he did in the Asia Cup now does it, you can’t really compare the breaking of a billon hearts with the average, it’s worth its weight in gold

 

[shaz619]

Is that the sole aim, beating India?

That probably is the reason why you guys never beat India in important matches, you want it way too much.

Puts unnecessary pressure on the game and the natural mind body connection goes haywire.

Afridi had memorable performances against India across all formats during his time, they didn’t do good in WC’s, but the question you have is more relevant to the current players

 

[RahulBose]

Afridi had memorable performances against India across all formats during his time, they didn’t do good in WC’s, but the question you have is more relevant to the current players

Is it?

Did the previous generation players not get nervous?
I would say the previous generations did worse since they were better than this sorry lot you call a "team".

 

[shah9425]

Shahid Afridi criticized Pakistan selection committee after series defeat against Bangladesh:

"The World Cup performances were right in front of you and after that we lost the series 2-1 to Bangladesh. In my opinion, I should be the one feeling sorry for the selection committee. There is a reason for this: you are all playing so much cricket yet you have no idea who should be the captain for which format. You need to take a firm decision.

In the name of 'surgery,' you have picked up new players who have only played a few first-class matches. Our domestic cricket is not at a standard where these players can just come in and take a place in the Pakistan team. On the other hand you have sidelined seniors who had the right to be there. If they don't have T20 performances they still have very good performances in One-Day cricket.

As part of this 'surgery,' you have pushed out seniors with good One-Day records and brought in youngsters who have barely played domestic or first-class matches. Neither is the standard of our domestic cricket high enough, nor is the standard of these players sufficient to earn a spot in the national side. You are just handing out the Pakistan cap to anyone. This is not what you call surgery. The surgery should actually be performed on the selection committee itself"

Ask your son in law to resign from Captaincy please

 

[shaz619]

Is it?

Did the previous generation players not get nervous?
I would say the previous generations did worse since they were better than this sorry lot you call a "team".

Why, apart from WC’s they did ok and Indian players legacy from that period was built around the Pak players they faced - it was high octane competitive cricket when the balance between bat & ball was even, these lot have just that one match in Dubai chasing a low total

 

[Local.Dada]

Why, apart from WC’s they did ok and Indian players legacy from that period was built around the Pak players they faced - it was high octane competitive cricket when the balance between bat & ball was even, these lot have just that one match in Dubai chasing a low total

Afridi was part of a very strong team which had top of the line bowlers and top shelf batsmen.

Ind-Pak used to play Pak in a lot of random usless kitply and cool-cool trophies or Dawood invitational open in Sharjah.

No doubt Pak was the better team. However the gulf between Ind-Pak team in the 90s-2000s or let’s say Afridi era was not that huge compared to now between India and Pak .

Afridi sucked bats and bit balls in every important game vs India be it in T20 or Odis. Yes he might have bashed some useless Indian trundlers in random bilateral or some useless match.

By the same account Rizwan has played 2 match winning knocks vs India in Asia cup and W20 in this era . So he does have bragging rights too.

 

[Sachin fan]

I knew it, somebody is still sour about Afridi stripping you lot nanga unlike the others

He did in couple of matches and failed in all the important ones, both with bat and ball. Which is typical of you guys.

He didn't do anything more than what Junaid khan did.

 

[shaz619]

He did in couple of matches and failed in all the important ones, both with bat and ball. Which is typical of you guys.

He didn't do anything more than what Junaid khan did.

He did enough damage in those games evidently

 

[RahulBose]

Why, apart from WC’s they did ok and Indian players legacy from that period was built around the Pak players they faced - it was high octane competitive cricket when the balance between bat & ball was even, these lot have just that one match in Dubai chasing a low total

That's not true, playing well against SENA always had higher respect in india than any performance against Pak.

Losing to pak hurts bad, but performance filter was always performance against SENA, and away performance

 

[shaz619]

Afridi was part of a very strong team which had top of the line bowlers and top shelf batsmen.

Ind-Pak used to play Pak in a lot of random usless kitply and cool-cool trophies or Dawood invitational open in Sharjah.

No doubt Pak was the better team. However the gulf between Ind-Pak team in the 90s-2000s or let’s say Afridi era was not that huge compared to now between India and Pak .

Afridi sucked bats and bit balls in every important game vs India be it in T20 or Odis. Yes he might have bashed some useless Indian trundlers in random bilateral or some useless match.

By the same account Rizwan has played 2 match winning knocks vs India in Asia cup and W20 in this era . So he does have bragging rights too.

Nice try, lets belittle the series that people cared about way more than they do now. He has performances across all forms against them and it use to be a good competitive rivalry, Indians respected Afridi way more then any Pak batter now apart from Fakhar Zaman.

If you were chasing 150 on a slow pitch in Dubai, you would have done well to, that was nothing special from Rizwan or Babar, Shaheen did the main damage in that match

 

[shaz619]

That's not true, playing well against SENA always had higher respect in india than any performance against Pak.

Losing to pak hurts bad, but performance filter was always performance against SENA, and away performance

That’s a position I am more likely to accept today but not back then

 

[Kianig89]

Ironic , that press conference some days back Selector Asad Shafiq remained silent during the 1 Hour.

These clown selectors ignored KG for that son of Envelope Journo disgusting , shows how much this system is rotten.

 

[Local.Dada]

Nice try, lets belittle the series that people cared about way more than they do now. He has performances across all forms against them and it use to be a good competitive rivalry, Indians respected Afridi way more then any Pak batter now apart from Fakhar Zaman.

If you were chasing 150 on a slow pitch in Dubai, you would have done well to, that was nothing special from Rizwan or Babar, Shaheen did the main damage in that match

Yes people care more about Cool-cup match no. 3 and Kitply cup must win knockout match than a WT20 or Asia cup

 

[Bhaijaan]

Afridi, one of our white bal assets and a high impact player. As a father he is caring.

Outside of this realm, there’s nothing worth saying about Afridi. He’s a mental midget, politically compromised, proven to be a liar and a hypocrite.

His talks about cricket are often ordinary. No technical inputs. Just his usual political bakwas and high horseyness.

I don’t rate him highly as a fellow Pakistani. 3/10

 

[Cricfan8920]

If PCB are serious about saving and improving the Pakistani cricket, they should give full authority to Akhtar and Afridi. Together, they can form a three-format word beating Pak team that will be unbeatable.

 

[tiger_khan]

A surgery should also be performed on Pak TV cricket analysts

The father-in-laws of players should have some personal dignity and stop getting paid for analysis on TV shows. The room for conflict of interest is immense

Where we are today, apart from Generals' intervention in cricket, the so-called cricket analysts have played their parts

What Dr Nauman, his TV shows and Ramiz Raja did to Fawad Alam's cricket career is a matter of record

They made fun of Alam's stance and supported his absence from the National team a decade ago before his return. When he came back and Anglo analysts started to appreciate Alam's talent, both Dr Nauman and Ramiz got on the bandwagon

Pak media analysts have played an instrumental role in the decline of Pak cricket

Haris Sohail is probably the only next-to-complete batsman Pakistan produced in the last decade or so. He had his problems with the bouncy pitches but nothing close to technical problems other batsmen have had and PCB almost allowed them to play a hundred test matches.

No analyst raised his voice for Haris Sohail. Actually they worked together with the PCB to malign Haris with the "Jinn" stories.

Haris Sohail was a proper cricketer and didn't like the way PCB treated players. He treated the management with contempt - deservingly.

The TV analysts worked hand in hand with the PCB to get rid of him.

The TV analysts are the problem too.

 

[Local.Dada]

If PCB are serious about saving and improving the Pakistani cricket, they should give full authority to Akhtar and Afridi. Together, they can form a three-format word beating Pak team that will be unbeatable.

Akthar and Afridi are a more accomplished version of that Tanvir Ahmed guy. They know running their mouth is way easier than being in administration and running an organization be it a well run organization or a chaotic organization like PCB. They are too shrewd to stay away from such things and impact what makes them the money lol.

 

[shaz619]

Yes people care more about Cool-cup match no. 3 and Kitply cup must win knockout match than a WT20 or Asia cup

A knockout match is precious, but if you think those series didn’t mean much to Pakistan/India then you started watching recently

 

[Major]

Sarfraz selected ghazi ghouri cause of karachi factor and ignored haseebullah, but hey no one wants to discuss that...

 

[Major]

A surgery should also be performed on Pak TV cricket analysts

The father-in-laws of players should have some personal dignity and stop getting paid for analysis on TV shows. The room for conflict of interest is immense

Where we are today, apart from Generals' intervention in cricket, the so-called cricket analysts have played their parts

What Dr Nauman, his TV shows and Ramiz Raja did to Fawad Alam's cricket career is a matter of record

They made fun of Alam's stance and supported his absence from the National team a decade ago before his return. When he came back and Anglo analysts started to appreciate Alam's talent, both Dr Nauman and Ramiz got on the bandwagon

Pak media analysts have played an instrumental role in the decline of Pak cricket

Haris Sohail is probably the only next-to-complete batsman Pakistan produced in the last decade or so. He had his problems with the bouncy pitches but nothing close to technical problems other batsmen have had and PCB almost allowed them to play a hundred test matches.

No analyst raised his voice for Haris Sohail. Actually they worked together with the PCB to malign Haris with the "Jinn" stories.

Haris Sohail was a proper cricketer and didn't like the way PCB treated players. He treated the management with contempt - deservingly.

The TV analysts worked hand in hand with the PCB to get rid of him.

The TV analysts are the problem too.

I get the gist if your posts, but the fault lies on selectors that bow to media.

Ijazz butt, although was a chairman, he never bowed to media

 

[TeymurBlake]

Ex players have too much time on their hands.

Give them a mic or platform & they spew like a Regina George from Mean Girls.

 

[tiger_khan]

I get the gist if your posts, but the fault lies on selectors that bow to media.

Ijazz butt, although was a chairman, he never bowed to media

Ijaz Butt did stand up to Players' Power

He even told one of the present father-in-laws to get lost while the latter was the captain of the team

Butt should get credit for that

However, Butt himself was a byproduct of media and actually exploited media for his own benefit. To the best of my recollection, he was already giving interview to one of the TV channels and praising himself for helping the Pakistani team reach the semi-final... WHILE THE 2011 WAS STILL BEING PLAYED.

Butt knew that Pakistan was going to lose the game during the mid of Pakistani chase. He preemptively arranged and interview to tackle the criticism. To the best of my recollection (I could be wrong) the song, "tum jeeto ya haro, humay tum say Pyar Hai," was actually introduced at that point of time. It was all political in nature.

Butt did confront few TV Channels but other TV channels went out of their way to support him too.

Lastly, social media was not as strong of a beast as it is today. We can only hypothesize how he would have reacted to the organized campaigns by players marketing agencies & PSL owners of today. We will never know.

But I do agree that he stood up to unfair demands of the players. Maybe because he was an international cricketer himself and understood the game and its internal politics.

 

[SportsWarrior]

What have Hafeez & Tanvir done in comparison? Afridi had a long career and was inconsistent, but across all formats he had some memorable performances against India & I value the impact even more now - both Babar & Rizwan would statistically be better T20 players then Afridi according to you , that average doesn’t capture what he did in the Asia Cup now does it, you can’t really compare the breaking of a billon hearts with the average, it’s worth its weight in gold

nothing and i don't care about them either. I responded because it was about Shahid Afridi. Against India, this guy was a laughing stock, especially as a bowler and as a batsman just a slogger. if someone's bowling averages are 50 in T20is and 60 in ODIs they were completely useless as a bowler. Any impact he may have had as a bowler was just a fluke and once in a blue moon. As a batsman he was a slogger and will connect few on his good days. So he had few such innings against India which is similar to what he had against other. Nothing out of ordinary compared to other teams. In T20i even that was missing. He was literally a club cricketer against India in T20is. Only in batting in ODIs for few matches he had some impact. He played 60+ matches against India and with that many number of attempts to slog, few were bound to come off.

Regarding cricket analyss, what he says should be taken with a bucket of salt as he was never known for having any braincells.