What's new

"When Pakistan team went to New Zealand, they just trained at the camp for a day" : Shahid Afridi

Savak

World Star
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Runs
50,133
Post of the Week
3
"When Pakistan team went to New Zealand, they just trained at the camp for a day" : Shahid Afridi

KARACHI: Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has lashed out at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and team management for their lack of preparation for the New Zealand tour.

The Men in Green had a tough time Down Under, where they lost six consecutive matches before finishing the tour on a high with back-to-back victories to claim the T20I series after being whitewashed in the ODIs.

Afridi, who retired from international cricket last year after representing the Green Shirts for 18 years, expressed his views about the team’s performance in New Zealand, and revealed his belief that things could’ve turned out differently had there been better planning.

“When the Pakistan team went to New Zealand, they just trained at the camp for a day, which was by no means enough,” said Afridi, while talking at the MOU signing ceremony of his foundation with Microsoft Pakistan to empower youth from underprivileged communities in Pakistan at a local hotel on Monday. “When you know you are going to play with a difficult opponent in tough conditions, you should have practiced more. All these things matter but in the end practice, fitness and skills are required to win matches.”

Afridi recently took part in an exhibition match on the ‘Cricket on Ice’ event, where he was the captain of the Royals’ team and grabbed media attention by asking an Indian fan to straighten the flag before taking a picture with it.

When asked about it, Afridi said: “We should respect the flags of other nations and that why I asked them to hold flag in a proper way and also because I wanted them to have a better picture.”

Talking about the partnership with Microsoft Pakistan for the betterment of youth, Afridi said: “I highly appreciate and thank the management of Microsoft for entrusting and acknowledging my pledge and strive for the cause. Through this we will be working in the areas where people have less knowledge about technology and give them atleast enough knowledge about the system that they know for whom they are voting for in the elections.”

Afridi represented Pakistan in 27 Test, 398 ODIs and 98 T20Is, where he collectively scored more than 11,000 runs and claimed 540 wickets.

Link: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1633940/7-lack-preparation-cost-pakistan-new-zealand-tour-afridi/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail! Need a lot of preparation for these series!
 
Yes we should have arrived earlier and the squad selected was very very poor .
 
70% cause of we losing in ODI was the lack of practice according to NZ conditions. We had one job to do. How can we screw it so badly?
 
Ironic all this from Afridi but I do understand because he's being paid to talk.
 
How early should a team arrive for a ODI series? month, 2 months? I understand if Pakistan was there for a full tour like Tests, ODIs and T20 but this was just a ODI/T20 tour. Pakistan came early enough, even had a practice game. Days are gone when you play 3-4 practice games before a series starts. You will just get a game of practice at best. Not sure what he is talking about.
 
There are some people who Pakistan cricket should do it best to scrub from its memory. Nothing Afridi says should be assume to be true, relevant or valid
 
You don't arrive on a tour 1 month ago that contains only LOIs
They reached NZ 10 days before 1st match and that's enough time.
 
You don't arrive on a tour 1 month ago that contains only LOIs
They reached NZ 10 days before 1st match and that's enough time.

I agree with you there but they could have had more practice games.
 
Afridi is right and you have to look at the think-tank for this lack of planning.

There are experienced guys in the Pakistan set-up and surely they should have made a point of ensuring there was better and longer preparation.
 
Afridi is right and you have to look at the think-tank for this lack of planning.

There are experienced guys in the Pakistan set-up and surely they should have made a point of ensuring there was better and longer preparation.

The team was so hung over by the CT win that it appears they forgot that they were scheduled to play a series in NZ.
 
The team was so hung over by the CT win that it appears they forgot that they were scheduled to play a series in NZ.

Yes, and some players were preparing for the NZ tour by playing mickey-mouse T10 cricket.

Pathetic preparations.
 
How early should a team arrive for a ODI series? month, 2 months? I understand if Pakistan was there for a full tour like Tests, ODIs and T20 but this was just a ODI/T20 tour. Pakistan came early enough, even had a practice game. Days are gone when you play 3-4 practice games before a series starts. You will just get a game of practice at best. Not sure what he is talking about.

I get what you're saying but if you don't want to receive the phainty that Pakistan received then clearly in some situations you ought to go a little beyond the norm. We would have little chance in NZ conditions anyway but with that little prep they may as well have not bothered showing up at all. These are professional cricketers and they need to be adjusting to the demands of each series.
 
Back
Top