zaid65
T20I Debutant
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2009
- Runs
- 7,963
There have been countless thread, articles and discussions about the downfall of Pakistan cricket. People are blaming captains, PCB chiefs, selectors, players, lack of cricket in the country, emergence of 20/20 cricket and so on. Yes above all are responsible to some extent the downfall of Pakistan cricket but these factors are not the sole reasons for our downfall.
One of the main reason for our downfall is lack of planning, not have a proper vision for the future of cricket and selfish behavior of the senior players. Let's face it, our cricket culture is extremely selfish and narcissistic and the senior players of Pakistan cricket ( current and past with some exceptions) are extremely power hungry and they have purposely blocked some of the deserving players and did not allow the board to prepare their replacements.
Apart from Imran Khan and to some extent Younis Khan, none of the captain has allowed and identify any talented player to come to the team and let them settle. ( Spotting the talent by captain, was ouR main strength in the past). Majority of our captains were playing with their buddy 11 ( including Waseem, Waqar and Inzi). They were all selfish and purposely blocked the youngsters, so their own position in the team remains solid.
Our actual downfall started after the world cup of 2003, when Waseem and Waqar were forced to retire and there were no replacement bowler available. After 2003, we were all at the mercy of Akhtar and Sami's bowling along with Kaneria, all of them played majority of the matches for Pakistan. We were not smart enough to realize that Sami is not good enough for international cricket and Akhtar is not good enough for any form of cricket ( due to his personnel antics) and Kaneria is the only spinner who does not spin the ball, but we still played with these three bowlers majority of the time.
In batting, we had only Inzi, Yousuf and Younis. We did not allow any opener to settle down, there must have been 15-20 players tried for this position but none of them were allowed to settled down. Some of the players did show promise in test and they were thrown out after their failure on one day and players who showed promise in one day cricket, were thrown out after their failure in test cricket. In middle order, we used players like Malik and Faisal Iqbal most of the time, who were not good enough to play club cricket and we persisted in test cricket. It has been more than a decade that we have not found a decent batsman ( too early to predict about Umar Akmal).
For the last six years, we have been stuck with the wicket keeper who was not good behind the stump and have dropped countless catches and stumping opportunities and do date, we are still using him as a main wicket keeper..
In these years, we have given so many chances to players but majority of them were mediocre and below average. There is nothing wrong for giving chances to players but the biggest mistake we made, we stuck with them for long period of time instead of throw them out once realizing their true potential.
If you look from top to bottom, our cricket set up is based on nepotism and political wing of the ruling party.Our majority of the captains, selectors and cricket administrators are guilty of nepotism over the need for the team. It is only country, where players like, Faisal Iqbal, Sami, Malik, Farhat, Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Kaneria, ..despite being pathetic can play so many matches. What Javed Miandad has done ( apart from gifting Faisal Iqbal to our country) since he has been associated with the cricket team at different positions?
It was Inzi's timely batting in both forms of the game, we were able to survive for that long, otherwise we were never a good and consistent team. But once he retired, we were totally exposed in international cricket. Yes Malik and Yousuf are not good captain and I do not expect miracles from Afridi's captaincy either ( if he was given a chance). Captaincy is one problem, but not the ultimate cause of our failures. We have to adopt a different strategy and play with the best possible players to compete at international level. Cricket has been changed, it has not been the same game 10 years ago. But we are still playing 80's cricket.
We cannot match Australia's professionalism, we cannot match Indian dollars, but we can still do better if we adopt honesty and sincerity and leave aside our narcissism. I still believe that we have enough talent to compete with the best teams but we need somebody to identify that talent. Our victories in under 19 cricket is proof of our talent but we have failed to move from under 19 level and one of the reason, we are not able to transformed these players into international players not due to proper structure or facilities, but not able to give them a chance on timely manner. We need honest and sincere people in our cricket.
One of the main reason for our downfall is lack of planning, not have a proper vision for the future of cricket and selfish behavior of the senior players. Let's face it, our cricket culture is extremely selfish and narcissistic and the senior players of Pakistan cricket ( current and past with some exceptions) are extremely power hungry and they have purposely blocked some of the deserving players and did not allow the board to prepare their replacements.
Apart from Imran Khan and to some extent Younis Khan, none of the captain has allowed and identify any talented player to come to the team and let them settle. ( Spotting the talent by captain, was ouR main strength in the past). Majority of our captains were playing with their buddy 11 ( including Waseem, Waqar and Inzi). They were all selfish and purposely blocked the youngsters, so their own position in the team remains solid.
Our actual downfall started after the world cup of 2003, when Waseem and Waqar were forced to retire and there were no replacement bowler available. After 2003, we were all at the mercy of Akhtar and Sami's bowling along with Kaneria, all of them played majority of the matches for Pakistan. We were not smart enough to realize that Sami is not good enough for international cricket and Akhtar is not good enough for any form of cricket ( due to his personnel antics) and Kaneria is the only spinner who does not spin the ball, but we still played with these three bowlers majority of the time.
In batting, we had only Inzi, Yousuf and Younis. We did not allow any opener to settle down, there must have been 15-20 players tried for this position but none of them were allowed to settled down. Some of the players did show promise in test and they were thrown out after their failure on one day and players who showed promise in one day cricket, were thrown out after their failure in test cricket. In middle order, we used players like Malik and Faisal Iqbal most of the time, who were not good enough to play club cricket and we persisted in test cricket. It has been more than a decade that we have not found a decent batsman ( too early to predict about Umar Akmal).
For the last six years, we have been stuck with the wicket keeper who was not good behind the stump and have dropped countless catches and stumping opportunities and do date, we are still using him as a main wicket keeper..
In these years, we have given so many chances to players but majority of them were mediocre and below average. There is nothing wrong for giving chances to players but the biggest mistake we made, we stuck with them for long period of time instead of throw them out once realizing their true potential.
If you look from top to bottom, our cricket set up is based on nepotism and political wing of the ruling party.Our majority of the captains, selectors and cricket administrators are guilty of nepotism over the need for the team. It is only country, where players like, Faisal Iqbal, Sami, Malik, Farhat, Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Kaneria, ..despite being pathetic can play so many matches. What Javed Miandad has done ( apart from gifting Faisal Iqbal to our country) since he has been associated with the cricket team at different positions?
It was Inzi's timely batting in both forms of the game, we were able to survive for that long, otherwise we were never a good and consistent team. But once he retired, we were totally exposed in international cricket. Yes Malik and Yousuf are not good captain and I do not expect miracles from Afridi's captaincy either ( if he was given a chance). Captaincy is one problem, but not the ultimate cause of our failures. We have to adopt a different strategy and play with the best possible players to compete at international level. Cricket has been changed, it has not been the same game 10 years ago. But we are still playing 80's cricket.
We cannot match Australia's professionalism, we cannot match Indian dollars, but we can still do better if we adopt honesty and sincerity and leave aside our narcissism. I still believe that we have enough talent to compete with the best teams but we need somebody to identify that talent. Our victories in under 19 cricket is proof of our talent but we have failed to move from under 19 level and one of the reason, we are not able to transformed these players into international players not due to proper structure or facilities, but not able to give them a chance on timely manner. We need honest and sincere people in our cricket.
Spot on. But this statement stands out for me: 
