When it comes to Pakistan cricket, there is always this reluctance to take responsibility whenever the national team gives a poor show at the international stage, writes Khalid Hussain.
The players shy away from it so does the officials.
On Friday, Waqar Younis followed in the footsteps of Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi when he refused to accept the blame for his team’s premature exit from the World Twenty20 championship.
It is a common practice in many parts of the world that when the national team fails to live up to expectations in a world level tournament, either the captain or coach or both decide to step down.
But in Pakistan they are mostly involved in a blame game and point fingers at each other.
When asked after the match whether he will quit as Pakistan coach, Waqar said: “As far as my career is concerned, I will go back and meet the PCB chairman and other concerned people and see what needs to be done.”
The former Test pacer said that he was disappointed at Pakistan’s poor show in the tournament.
“It is very disappointing to move out of a World Cup like this. I think losing the last match was more disappointing as I thought that that day we were more in control of the match situation.
“I think we did some mistakes while bowling. We gave away too many runs in the last few overs. In fact if you see, whenever we got wickets we gave away a boundary or two and that’s where we lost the plot. If we had been able to control that the score would not have been 193.
“I think we have a better bowling attack than this. The bowling was totally off the plan and that cost us the match.”
Waqar conceded that Pakistan cricket was in decline.
“We have just lost and whatever I say will look like an excuse. If we think deeply we will see that Pakistan hasn’t seen any international cricket for last seven-eight years and that has hurt us. And that has started showing now.
“Earlier we had match winners like Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez who could bowl. Yes, I would say that Pakistan cricket is in a bit of a decline and we need to control it. We will have to look at our domestic cricket and infrastructure.
Waqar refuted the impression that his team was splintered.
“I don’t think there is any truth about rifts in the team. Even I am a bit surprised and disappointed that such rumours are being spread. We are not playing good cricket and that’s the bottom line. And as a result of that we have to face this.”
The players shy away from it so does the officials.
On Friday, Waqar Younis followed in the footsteps of Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi when he refused to accept the blame for his team’s premature exit from the World Twenty20 championship.
It is a common practice in many parts of the world that when the national team fails to live up to expectations in a world level tournament, either the captain or coach or both decide to step down.
But in Pakistan they are mostly involved in a blame game and point fingers at each other.
When asked after the match whether he will quit as Pakistan coach, Waqar said: “As far as my career is concerned, I will go back and meet the PCB chairman and other concerned people and see what needs to be done.”
The former Test pacer said that he was disappointed at Pakistan’s poor show in the tournament.
“It is very disappointing to move out of a World Cup like this. I think losing the last match was more disappointing as I thought that that day we were more in control of the match situation.
“I think we did some mistakes while bowling. We gave away too many runs in the last few overs. In fact if you see, whenever we got wickets we gave away a boundary or two and that’s where we lost the plot. If we had been able to control that the score would not have been 193.
“I think we have a better bowling attack than this. The bowling was totally off the plan and that cost us the match.”
Waqar conceded that Pakistan cricket was in decline.
“We have just lost and whatever I say will look like an excuse. If we think deeply we will see that Pakistan hasn’t seen any international cricket for last seven-eight years and that has hurt us. And that has started showing now.
“Earlier we had match winners like Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez who could bowl. Yes, I would say that Pakistan cricket is in a bit of a decline and we need to control it. We will have to look at our domestic cricket and infrastructure.
Waqar refuted the impression that his team was splintered.
“I don’t think there is any truth about rifts in the team. Even I am a bit surprised and disappointed that such rumours are being spread. We are not playing good cricket and that’s the bottom line. And as a result of that we have to face this.”
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