To critics of Sarfraz Ahmed's English: His job is to win cricket matches not speak perfect English

[Macho Mann]

People like @Mamoom missing the point here. It's not about speaking English but cricketing fans ( SC in particular ) criticizing him for not being able to. The current Pakistani education system was created by an Englishman so that half go to overzealous madrassas and the other half to prestigious institutes. This allows for the people who do get an education to have a false sense of intellectual superiority and not be able to do anything. This is a CRICKET forum, let's keep the talk to cricket and not Public Relations.

sarfraz ahmed is educated, he is an electronics engineer from Dawood university of engineering and tech

 

[Abdul]

I'm not going to criticise his English here because that would be a pointless thing to do and secondly I don't really care if he isn't good at it. But therein lies the bigger problem. Why is he even talking in English in the first place if he's going to make a fool of himself? He should be talking in Urdu to begin off with. It's not really difficult to get someone to be a translator for you.

 

[princeuk]

I Disagree. While there is nothing wrong in improving your english, its not something a cricket captain cant live without. Sarfaraz can always have a translator sitting next to him if he feels. If cricket spreads to other non-english speaking countries 20 years from now, you wont see many captains who can be fluent in english. Same is the case in football. A translator is all that a non-english speaker needs to communicate to media.

Having said that, i would reiterate there is nothing wrong in trying to improve your english.

Exactly, only a narrow minded individual would have an issue with this.

 

[vandokkum]

If you can't speak English then just use a translator. No need to open yourself up to mockery. Messi doesn't speak English either

 

[adil_909]

Nobody has a response to all of us who are pointing out that the best footballers in the world barely speak English, and nobody goes up to them and asks them these ridiculous questions. Why can't the Pakistani cricket team hire a media savvy translator?

 

[Mamoon]

Examples of footballers again.

Oh bhai, football is a global sport that is played by over 200 countries. More than half of these countries don't even know a word of English. Even the honchos of FIFA do not communicate in English, and you have French, Spanish, Italian etc. journalists and every play speaks in his native language unless he is playing in a league. For example, non-English players have to speak English only while playing in the PL.

The situation in cricket is completely different. It is played by Commonwealth countries at the top level and all of these countries have English as an official language. As a result, everything form of communication (unless it is within a team/country) is conducted in English - from the ICC to the match officials. Thus, having the ability to communicate in English is an important skill for a cricket captain. If cricket would have been dominated by non-English speaking countries like football, all the players would simply be communicating with the media in their native languages.

However, improving your communication skills and your English is a Gunah-e-Kabira, and all Pakistani captains and players must stay at arm's length from committing this deadly sin.

 

[Sin Nombre]

Mamoon makes two valid points

- cricket =/= football. One is a provincial sport, other is actually global

- a captain/part of team management should be able to communicate clearly; it can even start with just talking coherently and fluently in Urdu. Speech therapy / media training is a must and should not be considered as something negative.

 

[surg]

As long as he keeps winning, who cares abt english.

 

[Ashraful_Rox]

Wasim Akram captained, took wickets, used to hit sixes and spoke fluent English. Wasim' English used to make other sub continental's English look bad, now look Sarfraz sounds like Ashraful. Sarfraz needs to improve his English, cricket was invented by the English so you need English, true story brah.

Imran Khan - legend
Wasim Akram - hero
Sarfraz - subtitle please

 

[from_da_lost_dim3nsion]

Every job has a profile. If you are dealing with the public and the media, it is important to have good communication skills. Many folks fail job interviews with 4.0 GPAs and stellar academic records because they were not able to make a good impression and were unable to communicate effectively, even though are not going to interact with people on daily basis.

Similarly, a cricket captain needs to a good communicator, and English has become a requirement because only English speaking countries (and countries with English as an official language) play the game, unlike football or tennis. You don't have any French or Spanish journalists asking questions, but you have English speaking journalists and if there is a considerable language-barrier, then it becomes a problem.

For some reason, this topic hits a lot of nerves and triggers folks easily. I am not criticizing Sarfraz because he comes from a humble background and did not have the exposure (and he is actually improving), but the fact is that having a captain who can express himself fluently and coherently is a major plus point. Just look at the way the likes of Kohli and Mathews carry themselves in press conferences and communicate with the journalists and then compare him to Sarfraz, who is a nervous talker in both English and Urdu, seems to be a little camera shy and is not coherent at all. His press-conferences are a complete mess because he is all over the place with his statements.

Obviously, good communication skills cannot take precedence over cricket skills. Masood is the best speaker in the team, but he is a rubbish player. However, having quality players who are also good speakers is a big advantage, and this why the PCB needs to step in - and not listen to the people in this thread - and provide media training to domestic players so that they are not deer in headlights when they have to confront the media.

It seems like people here enjoy the embarrassment the likes of Umar had to face during the 2014 WT20, when he talked about North when asked about South, because who cares about English etc., we are proud Pakistanis and should only communicate in Urdu and let's get over the "colonial mindset" bla bla.

As captain of Pakistan, Sarfraz has to improve his communication skills. In cricketing terms, it means improving his English and his overall coherence (which is found wanting in Urdu as well). That's all.

This is a trash post . Sarfaraz's job is to represent Pakistan in CRICKET not in English language skills. Even so the guys gets his point across and that's good enough . You don't have to write 2 paragraph long posts doing all kinds of mental gymnastics trying to make an issue out of nothing .

 

[Poutine]

Examples of footballers again.

Oh bhai, football is a global sport that is played by over 200 countries. More than half of these countries don't even know a word of English. Even the honchos of FIFA do not communicate in English, and you have French, Spanish, Italian etc. journalists and every play speaks in his native language unless he is playing in a league. For example, non-English players have to speak English only while playing in the PL.

The situation in cricket is completely different. It is played by Commonwealth countries at the top level and all of these countries have English as an official language. As a result, everything form of communication (unless it is within a team/country) is conducted in English - from the ICC to the match officials. Thus, having the ability to communicate in English is an important skill for a cricket captain. If cricket would have been dominated by non-English speaking countries like football, all the players would simply be communicating with the media in their native languages.

However, improving your communication skills and your English is a Gunah-e-Kabira, and all Pakistani captains and players must stay at arm's length from committing this deadly sin.

No one is saying that learning English is bad or it won't be a nice little bonus if Sarfaraz spoke perfect English. However the main point of this thread is that Sarfaraz is being mocked for the way he speaks and that needs to stop. Also you keep repeating that people here are saying that learning English is a "gunnah" or a negative , can you point out a a couple of post that are actually saying this?

Sarfarz's main job is to win cricket matches and thats what he should be evaluated on. Sure it might be nice if he learns English but thats not a big enough issue for people to lose their mind over.

 

[Macho Mann]

Wasim Akram captained, took wickets, used to hit sixes and spoke fluent English. Wasim' English used to make other sub continental's English look bad, now look Sarfraz sounds like Ashraful. Sarfraz needs to improve his English, cricket was invented by the English so you need English, true story brah.

Imran Khan - legend
Wasim Akram - hero
Sarfraz - subtitle please

some recent examples for you of pakistani legends who didnt speak good english

inzemam ul haq
younis khan
muhammad yusuf
shahid afridi

 

[Poutine]

Wasim Akram captained, took wickets, used to hit sixes and spoke fluent English. Wasim' English used to make other sub continental's English look bad, now look Sarfraz sounds like Ashraful. Sarfraz needs to improve his English, cricket was invented by the English so you need English, true story brah.

Imran Khan - legend
Wasim Akram - hero
Sarfraz - subtitle please

So in your view Mustafizur is not not of the rising stars of world cricket because he dosen't speak english?

If you actually feel like this than please send him over to Pakistan and take Salman Butt in return, Butt speaks almost perfect English.

 

[Nil Dhumrojal]

Not only he but also none should ever be criticize for not fluent in English. From now on He should always speak his mother tongue and everyone should honour that. ICC/other should arrange a bilingual person for his interview.

 

[light]

No he does not. Why is it any different to football? Just because it is the number 1 language does not mean it is a requirement for everyone to learn it. In fact in this day and age, with translators readily available, it is not an issue. When England tour the sub continent, they do not worry about the local language and nor should Pakistan players.

End of the day their job is to play cricket. Media duties are just a formality.

Also when Sarfraz gives an interview, the main target audience is the Pakistan fans and public. I really doubt the majority of fans from English speaking countries give a damn about what Sarfraz has to say, so why should he go out of his way to try and satisfy them?

I think you are misunderstanding his point of view. Here is another thing I find is important aswell (be it in english/urdu/hindi/bangla/etc). If you are the captain of the team, the likelihood of you giving a press conference is almost 100% after before/after each match. Now imagine Safraz was asked a question to which he responded with something completely different/irrelevant. South Asian media has a tendency of taking even the smallest little thing out of context and making a story out of it which btw puts added pressure on the captain/team itself. And that pressure translates to cricket on field.

To add to that bold part, you have to realize that a captain of a team represents the head of the team and the entire nation. You would not want an incompetent to come in and start blabbing his mouth (which btw Safraz is not - a prime example would be A. Shezad). You may not see it, but it actually does make the whole team look bad and the nation in some way. Imagine Sehwag was the captain of Team India and made the beta-pota comment, how would you react? You would think that what is wrong with BCCI to elect a ***** like this and make him the captain, regardless of how good of a striker of the ball he is.

Mamoon is right, if you're the captain, better be ready to take on the media. Because it will happen. It's PCB who needs to give these guys training on how to tackle media. All 3 subcontinent team's captains are able to comfortable communicate in english/mother tongue in front of the media, Pak should not be any different. It's a skill not everyone is born with, but can learn. If not, get a translator at worst case.

 

[Ashraful_Rox]

So in your view Mustafizur is not not of the rising stars of world cricket because he dosen't speak english?

If you actually feel like this than please send him over to Pakistan and take Salman Butt in return, Butt speaks almost perfect English.

I will take Imad Wasim, and make him the captain of Bangladesh.

 

[Sane.Cricket.Fan]

Players are Paid to play.

Sarfaraz speaks fairly well from whatever I have seen

 

[letme alone]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">To those criticising Sarfraz Ahmed's English. His job is to win cricket matches not speak perfect English <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CT17?src=hash">#CT17</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/874571080685555712">June 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Sane.Cricket.Fan]

I'd rather see Sarfarz as captain of Pak than Imad Wasim with his Swag Angrezi

 

[Zahid87]

I am not going to criticise Safaraz for his English skills. He comes from humble origins in Karachi. It would be ridiculous to expect him to speak the same way as someone like Imran Khan.

It would be nice though, if the PCB invested a bit in its players, and provided them with English classes and some form of media training. A lot of people have given football as an example. All major clubs provide their players with media training, as well as language classes. (FYI Ronaldo can speak reasonable English).

In terms of cricket, I know for a fact that the BCCI does this too. The ECB, CA and probably some of the other major boards also ensure that their players have some form of media training....so that nothing untoward is said, and any risk of a player statement causing media controversy is mitigated.

 

[Sidilicious]

As long as Sarfaraz can speak one language with authority, it's fine. Doesn't have to be English. Can be Urdu.

But he needs to have some public speaking and good communication skills, whatever language it may be.

 

[Sane.Cricket.Fan]

Compared to Umar Akmal, Sarfaraz is good

 

[waqar goraya]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sarfraz Ahmed today:<br>Perfect captaincy<br>Perfect leadership<br>Perfect day<br>And for those critics - Perfect English &#55357;&#56859;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CT17?src=hash">#CT17</a></p>— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Saj_PakPassion/status/875036871339986946">June 14, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Adil_94]

Sarfraz's English has really improved and even then his main focus should be on cricket.

Yes itd be nice if our cricketers could speak a competent level of English as it is the lingua franca of the cricketing world. But its not essential for me.

 

[Mamoon]

This is a trash post . Sarfaraz's job is to represent Pakistan in CRICKET not in English language skills. Even so the guys gets his point across and that's good enough . You don't have to write 2 paragraph long posts doing all kinds of mental gymnastics trying to make an issue out of nothing .

Yes as I said, it is a cardinal sin. As captain of Pakistan, it will not help if Sarfraz better equip himself on how to interact with the journalists and how to carry himself in the media. It hurts our ego.

In fact, I would suggest that he should simply refuse to talk to the media. After all, his only job is to play cricket for Pakistan and not talk to people.