What's new

"We claim that there is too much talent in Pakistan, but sorry, no talent" : Shahid Afridi

ahmedwaqas92 said:
His sponsors have only themselves to blame if they are finding themselves in such a sponsored mess - Seriously they should fire the guy who told them to invest in Shahid Afridi after the World Cup 2015.

Everyone and their mom knew that Lala's team would be beaten black and blue in the Asia Cup and World T20 so basically they invested in something that was loosing it's shine and now since it's gone who is to blame ?? Themselves.

Sponsors can't do jack when a guy like Inzi is at the helm of things; simply put Afridi can't bully his into the side anymore and the more he flexes his muscles in desperation that more entertaining it gets for me since this bloke basically high jacked Pakistan cricket for more than a decade.
Click to expand...

True.
 
Leave Lala alone.

Have some human decency. The man is going through rough patch.

You all are fair weather fans.
 
The biggest example of the lack of talent is Afridi himself.

He pulls the seniority card saying he needs to be there to mentor the youngsters yet now trashes these same youngsters as having no talent and think aren't as good as himself.

Addressing the substance of the issue. Its true Pakistan aren't producing talent of the calibre we used to. This is down to many reasons but mainly substandard domestic setup, fewer players being able to ply their trade in county cricket and thus gain experience of foreign conditions, poor quality of grassroots coaching and lack of investment in facilities especially post-Lahore attacks with loss of revenues from home internationals.
 
Markhor said:
The biggest example of the lack of talent is Afridi himself.

He pulls the seniority card saying he needs to be there to mentor the youngsters yet now trashes these same youngsters as having no talent and think aren't as good as himself.

Addressing the substance of the issue. Its true Pakistan aren't producing talent of the calibre we used to. This is down to many reasons but mainly substandard domestic setup, fewer players being able to ply their trade in county cricket and thus gain experience of foreign conditions, poor quality of grassroots coaching and lack of investment in facilities especially post-Lahore attacks with loss of revenues from home internationals.
Click to expand...

What he basically said was that he had grand plans to retire after leaving us with a wonderful team, but then he realised that he's still better than the others. So he left captaincy, but he realised he is a lot better than the others as a player, which is why he didn't retire. :facepalm:
 
ahmedwaqas92 said:
Thank you for your esteemed input brother. We are honored that you have blessed us with your views on something we were so arrogant about - I believe I clearly see the light now.

However, you shouldn't have wasted your precious seconds on writing something so trivial and apparent - PP should just close shop and move it's privileges to all Indian forums since apparently that's where the talent really is right ??

BTW what a fluke innings Babar and Saud played today - Seemed a downright anomaly considering that we need institutions who would take years and years on making our players even competitive at the highest level. Can someone help me make sense of this [MENTION=138379]#GreenRoars[/MENTION] [MENTION=138254]Syed1[/MENTION] [MENTION=137507]asyed[/MENTION] [MENTION=139150]aliasad1998[/MENTION]
Click to expand...

This is case in point to what I was referring to earlier - the fire never dies here at PP. I like how you've summoned your cheerleaders as well.

A few good innings here and there and the boasting begins. Just like it was done for the likes of Umar Akmal, Umar Amin, Hammad Azam, Mohammed Rizwan and the list goes on and on.

It's good to praise them but believe it or not they are not enough to compete at world level. You would think the losses to Bangladesh after the world cup would have opened some eyes - I guess not.

I never knew it was a crime to praise Indian talent here. I didn't mean it in a condescending way towards Pakistani players but it's natural to look at them in light of their consistent success.
 
Younger Talent could only come forward when the seniors get retired at the right time.
We indeed have the replacements for Afridi in form of Hassan Ali and Yamin and many spinners who could also bat.
 
There is no talent in the current pakistan team. The seniors are falling like nine pins
 
What an idiotic statement to say, first time i've come across this :facepalm:

There will always be talent, it's how you nurture it and manage it at the top level that you get results
 
MenInG said:
When did Misbah say anything about no talent?
Click to expand...

Pakistan cant score 240 without Misbah, we kept hearing this for so long (Misbah also hinted this post match interviews) and he kept on playing odis till 41. Was never good enough in odis especially to play this long. Pakistan has abundance of talent only if these guys let able youngsters develop.
 
MenInG said:
When did Misbah say anything about no talent?
Click to expand...

Bro, one day you replied to me saying that if misbah wasnt there Pak would be looking at 20 all out :)) I know it was the harsh truth at that time but many of the guys being given chances today could have been a part of Misbah's ODI team as well if Misbah would have pushed for their inclusion. Haris sohail is a prime example who was kept out for younis khan. Sometimes made to bat at 7-8 if my memory serves me right.
 
SarfiBabarHaris said:
Pakistan cant score 240 without Misbah, we kept hearing this for so long (Misbah also hinted this post match interviews) and he kept on playing odis till 41. Was never good enough in odis especially to play this long. Pakistan has abundance of talent only if these guys let able youngsters develop.
Click to expand...

yes we kept on hearing it from people like me! but did Misbah say that? He was the last person ever to put his teammates down.
 
Afridi was blocking the talent.

I loved Afridi for his cricket at times but his statements were bizarre, politically motivated and just plain stupid at times.
 
Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Hassan Ali, Babar Azam, Imam ul haq, faheem Ashraf.


Hmm weird the more we try out new players the more new talents we discover.
 
The current lot Inzi is selecting aren't even the best available. There's so much more potential, you guys have no idea.
 
These undeserving seniors gave these statements to keep their places in the team. If Aamir Sohail would've remained selector Star Afridi would never have played again.

The new ones are way better than the seniors occupying the team. Asad Shafiq being preferred over Usman S. was another shameful thing done by team management or else he would've made a double hundred and won something.
 
This series was such a nostalgic throwback to the 90s.

Young players coming off the blocks in those days an outpouring of talent that would really brighten your day when you see them perform.
Shadab, Fakhar, Hasan Ali and now Imam ul Haq to name a few have really set this team alight.
 
MenInG said:
yes we kept on hearing it from people like me! but did Misbah say that? He was the last person ever to put his teammates down.
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure I have heard Misbah saying something along the lines that if there are better batsmen than him, he will leave the odi side and continued playing till 41. Directly he may have not called it like Afridi but its obvious he was holding our team back.. Under Misbah we were knocked out of 2013 CT first round and 2015 WC in quarter final.. Should have never played a match after Mohali.. He was 36/37 at that time and a player knows himself when his time is up.. Even if i give him benefit of doubt he MUST have retired after 2013 CT in the better interest of Pakistan.. A 19 year old Babar Azam was better than him at that time... the less said about his treatment with able youngsters like Haris, the better.
 
Yes there is no talent in Pakistan but then how we haven't lost a t20 and odi series since your departure? Msla ye nahi k they cant have their opinion msla ye hai k they made us fools and made us happy with mediocrity and in turn became legends..
 
Can't blame Afridi for his comments back then, we were embarrassingly bad in the 2016 T-20 WC, perhaps the most unfit team of the tournament even though we had plenty of youngsters, even Ramiz Raja was criticizing the team and demanding a full clean up of the players saying they should not be given so many chances by the selectors and that Pakistani Cricket was a good 5-10 years behind the rest of the world where even India was so far ahead of them.
 
A lot of credit goes to Sarfraz, we were still mediocre when Azhar was captain, Sarfraz field placement and bowling changes brings in a lot of energy and responsibility in players, also when u start to develop winning culture and start winning games things will fall into its place.
 
We are going bit too far with our imaginations. Remember this was an out of sorts b-grade SL team not Australia or India. There are many players who will get trashed when facing better teams.
 
Two things here:

1. They didn't have this batch of good talents: guys like Shadab, Hasan, Faheem were too raw. Shadab was like 16 or something. The Afridi/Misbah era had to do with u-19 talents like U.Akmal/Shehzad/U.Amin etc. etc.

2. Misbah/Afridi always were on the defensive with the safety first policy choosing the players they could rely on so that they wouldn't lose and face criticism. In that era we heavily relied on spinners to bail us out and playing aggressively was totally out of the question against better oppositions.

Another possibility is that guys like Haroon/Iqbal Qasim didn't care about domestic or u-19 kids. They just selected the best on paper the reason Misbah/Afridi etc. weren't always familiar with the best out there. It is Inzi who straight away brought in Hasan, Shadab etc.
 
Last edited:
Shahid Afridi's comments today about this interview.

"I will stand by what I said, I won't take it back and take a u-turn. What I said was taken differently by people and the media. It's not that Pakistan doesn't have talent, we do. But the talent that is needed to go further at the international level, for that, you need to develop skills at cricket academies. At that time, we didn't have many cricket academies. Now we have 2-3 more. Having cricket academies is important because after religion, cricket is everything in this country. To develop young cricketers, you need cricket academies and in every city, you will need top class facilities with good coaches."
 
Afridi was abused by deluded fans but he was right.

There is no talent in Pakistan. A 40 year old Hafeez continues to outclass young batsmen coming through the system,

If Afridi makes a comeback at the age of 45, I bet he will still outperform Shadab.
 
How did they win under Mickey last time with these youngsters?

Misbah is a shameless person who axed mickey and became both chief selector and coach as cricket committee head.

Nothing to do with players he is a defensive person and will never change he tells bowlers to bowl line and length and Batsman to occupy the crease.
 
Afridi was right. Look at the embarrassing performances of the Shaheens.

Delusional fans will say that we should have picked XYZ talent spotter player instead, but what difference would it have made. They are all rubbish cricketers.

Pakistan will be minnows in all formats by 2025.
 
Mamoon said:
Afridi was right. Look at the embarrassing performances of the Shaheens.

Delusional fans will say that we should have picked XYZ talent spotter player instead, but what difference would it have made. They are all rubbish cricketers.

Pakistan will be minnows in all formats by 2025.
Click to expand...

I see some good changes in your system so you will remain mid table team till 2025 but will see a rise post that.
 
AamchiMumbaikar said:
I see some good changes in your system so you will remain mid table team till 2025 but will see a rise post that.
Click to expand...

These cosmetic changes will not do anything. Our mentality is rotten to the core and that will not change. It hasn’t changed in 30-40 years.
 
45 year old Afridi would still outperform these talented Shaheens.
 
It was never about the talent. It was always about the temperament. We always were gifted with the former but severely lack with the latter.
 
Forward Defensive Push said:
It was never about the talent. It was always about the temperament. We always were gifted with the former but severely lack with the latter.
Click to expand...

That's the point of the thread. Many fans like you mistakenly think we have talent, we don't. Just check out our overhyped talented boys in the recent Shaheens match against a domectic B team in New Zealand
 
Pakistan is the least talented team in international cricket at the moment.
 
Plenty talent but those who are talented and experienced in domestic league not selected.
Pak either select talentless but experienced players like Asif Ali, Khushdil Shah, Iftikhar or Talented but inexperienced like Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Musa, Haider Ali, Abdullah Shafiq. Players like Zafar Gohar, Saud Shakil, Kamran Ghulam, Rohail Nazirshould be selected. Anyway Mohd Wasim is working toward a reasonable balance but there are far too many to filter out from our international squad.
 
Here is the bitter reality – you take every young player in the country. 99% of them would be rubbish.
 
All this after 1 T20 loss? You beat SA at home in 2 formats and won the ODI series here. What's the problem? Pakistan dont have the talent to beat Big 3 teams consistently but it's a lot better than what Afridi is implied here five years ago.
 
Nikhil_cric said:
All this after 1 T20 loss? You beat SA at home in 2 formats and won the ODI series here. What's the problem? Pakistan dont have the talent to beat Big 3 teams consistently but it's a lot better than what Afridi is implied here five years ago.
Click to expand...

Wins against this South Africa C team were either lucky or self-inflicted on the SA side. Those were tight wins too, not comprehensive.

Today's humiliation showed the truth of where Pakistan really are as a cricket team. Nothing that happened today was unlucky.

The only funny thing is we've endured several of these under Misbah yet his position is the only one who doesn't seem under threat.
 
Mamoon said:
Here is the bitter reality – you take every young player in the country. 99% of them would be rubbish.
Click to expand...

We would be EXTREMELY LUCKY if that was the case.

Naturally gifted talent of a high class is perhaps 0.0001%

In a population of 220 million, at an average, we produce one talented player every decade. So you can do the math.
 
The new crop looks more promising than the previous one. Haider Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, and Usman Qadir are talented.
 
Haris Rauf has also been an interesting addition to the team. Waiting to see Abdullah Shafiq, Akif Javed, and Shahnawaz Dhani.
 
Agree with Lala. It is Imran Khan as usual who keeps talking rubbish of there being so much talent in Pakistan. Then again our PM is thick enough to rank Inzi above Sachin. The well is empty I am afraid, we no longer produce world beaters who can single handedly win us matches. All these great talents always disappoint at international level then they completely disappear.
 
i classify Talent as into 3 catagories God given talent. Great talent. Good talent.

God given talent. - Players like Tendulkar , who show grit and high skill at very young age. Viv Richards/ AB de Villiers , who had the mazing hand eye coordination. Mcgrath , Marshall , Asif - accuracy and ability yo work out a batsman's weakness. Speed Demons like Akhtar , Brett Lee , Waqar Younis etc who can bowl at a pace that most bowlers could only dream of. Sober's , gifted genius who could do everything well.
Majority of such players succeeded as ATG/GOAT. Some didn't make it because either work ethic was lacking or they get themselves distracted to achieve greatness in game.

Great talent - Exception players but not the finished product at the start. Most of these players succeeded in being up their with legends. Some a tier below but still ended up as great player.
Players like Wasim Akram , Gavaskar , Hadlee are pretty good example of this. A tier below would be players like Ponting , Andy Roberts etc. Some who failed would be Sami , Kambli etc. Some who didn't fulfill potential would be Umar Akmal , Afridi etc.

Good talent - These players were showed some promise at start but did not ended up as great players.
However there are few exceptions. Imran Khan is a prime example to what sheer hard work can do achieve true greatness. Other such later bloomers were Gooch , Misbah , Hayden , Anderson etc.
 
He's right, for a very long time the majority of players coming through are mediocre with the odd one or two shining units.
 
jeetu said:
i classify Talent as into 3 catagories God given talent. Great talent. Good talent.

God given talent. - Players like Tendulkar , who show grit and high skill at very young age. Viv Richards/ AB de Villiers , who had the mazing hand eye coordination. Mcgrath , Marshall , Asif - accuracy and ability yo work out a batsman's weakness. Speed Demons like Akhtar , Brett Lee , Waqar Younis etc who can bowl at a pace that most bowlers could only dream of. Sober's , gifted genius who could do everything well.
Majority of such players succeeded as ATG/GOAT. Some didn't make it because either work ethic was lacking or they get themselves distracted to achieve greatness in game.

Great talent - Exception players but not the finished product at the start. Most of these players succeeded in being up their with legends. Some a tier below but still ended up as great player.
Players like Wasim Akram , Gavaskar , Hadlee are pretty good example of this. A tier below would be players like Ponting , Andy Roberts etc. Some who failed would be Sami , Kambli etc. Some who didn't fulfill potential would be Umar Akmal , Afridi etc.

Good talent - These players were showed some promise at start but did not ended up as great players.
However there are few exceptions. Imran Khan is a prime example to what sheer hard work can do achieve true greatness. Other such later bloomers were Gooch , Misbah , Hayden , Anderson etc.
Click to expand...

In which tiers would you place players like Kohli, Rohit, & KL Rahul?
 
CanadianG00se said:
In which tiers would you place players like Kohli, Rohit, & KL Rahul?
Click to expand...

Kohli - great talent. Hard work is the key to his success. That pushed him in a league above.
Rohit - Great talent who took a long while to get him going. Still never really realized his test potential.
KL Rahul - Good talent who is realizing his potential in shorter format.
 
We have given whole Pakistan a chance in the middle order in recent times. Everyone has looked like a Z grade batsmen.

One of the least talented nation right now
 
Pakistan has always been the least talented cricket nation.
 
Says a lot when I can say with impunity that 45 year old retired Shahid Afridi( who btw we trashed on every chance we got) can easily walk into Pakistans team today. Makes sense as to why he played so long.
 
“Pakistan me talent bohat hai”

Cricket’s biggest lie.
 
That has been the case for a long time. All we have done is produced mediocre and meek players such as Bhatti, Asif Ali, Cheema, Cha Cha Ifti, Khusdil and Zia. There is absolutely no talent in this country.
 
There is talent in country. However, people seem to think that JUST talent will suffice. Cricket like other sports has advanced so much that it takes a well oiled machine to be competitive. Unless our system improves we will keep bringing half baked individuals in the name of talent.
 
I mean considering we won 3 ICC tournaments for a poor country with no talent thats pretty good right ? considering our exploits in Hockey Squash snooker and pakistani brits in boxing i would say pak has a lot of talent that despite our poor system and low GDP and horrible economy we still produce what we produce is a miracle. if pak economy improve and more money is dumped into cricket then we would surpass india as I feel pakistani and pathan in particular are the most athletic race from the sub continent
 
This thread always gets bumped when Pakistan are destined to lose.

Too bad it got bumped prematurely today as the wrist slitters didn’t get what they were expecting. Maybe they can watch some depressing movie instead tonight to sooth their fragile egos.
 
If you speak to people in most disciplines in Pakistan including academics, sports, IT and even pro video games the talent is massive in Pakistan. What is and has always lacked is infrastructure and exposure. Lack of exposure and professional coaching catches upto you when you go professional.

I always think back to a cricket tournament we played in England in school where most of the local English teams were mostly players from sub continent. That was quite telling.
 
Wise words by Afridi.

The least talented cricket nation today and of all time.

Absolute circus of a cricket team. A complete joke.
 
Afridi is right. The talent is mediocre. Afridi can still perform better than majority of these newbies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Ball Blazer
“Pakistan has so much talent that anyone can replace anyone at any time”: Salman Ali Agha
Replies
4
Views
375
GoUgandaCranes
GoUgandaCranes
The Bald Eagle
"Mohsin Naqvi told me he doesn't know anything about cricket': Shahid Afridi
Replies
35
Views
1K
zarak
Z
Cricket Warrior
[EXCLUSIVE] "When there is so much corruption, you cannot develop a coach": Abdur Rauf
Replies
10
Views
590
Ball Blazer
Ball Blazer
Cricket Warrior
"Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi are very much in our plans — they’ve delivered for Pakistan": Salman Ali Agha
Replies
16
Views
619
RizwanT20Champ
R
Bhaijaan
[VIDEO] 90s players left no legacy for Pakistan Cricket, claim Mohammad Hafeez and Rashid Latif
2 3
Replies
199
Views
5K
BouncerGuy
BouncerGuy
Back
Top