Pakistan’s stunning one run defeat to New Zealand which has virtually put them out of the World Twenty20 Cup semifinals has come as a big dampener for their fans and led to strong reactions with the Senate and National Assembly committee on sports announcing they would be holding inquiries into the team’s poor show in the West Indies.
Chasing 134 to win, defending champions Pakistan managed to score only 132 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their crucial Super Eights group E match at Kensington ground yesterday. The defeat has more or less put them out of contentions for a semi-final berth.
While some former cricketers had their knives out for the players and even board officials, Ghaffar Qureshi who heads the Senate committee said the captain, coach and manager would be summoned after their return to explain reasons behind poor performance in the Caribbean.
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“Definitely this sort of performance is not acceptable to anyone. We were defending champions and we didn’t play like one. We will be inquiring into this latest debacle because it is obvious that there are numerous problems still existing in Pakistan cricket,” Mr. Qureshi said.
Parliamentarian, Iqbal Muhammad Khan, who heads the NA committee said, it appeared as if the team had still not been cleansed completely of elements who were playing more for themselves rather than the country.
“We have been saying there is a need to change the cricket set up and bring in new faces. We can’t have the same old faces coming in and going out. We will call the team officials and board officials to find out what went wrong in this World Cup,” he said.
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Former Test captain, Aamir Sohail said the performance against New Zealand was another let down.
“The team clearly appeared under pressure and they just didn’t play fearlessly and with passion,” Sohail said.
Former chief selector, Abdul Qadir said it was really disappointing the way Pakistan had lost their way out of the World Cup.
“Today they finally played Abdul Rehman which was a good decision but why didn’t we chose to defend a total. The problem is that our team think tank apparently is still not aware of the team’s strengths and weaknesses.”
Former Test pacer, Sarfaraz Nawaz said the poor show was the result of poor planning and decision making by the board.
“I will say sack the board as well. They were the ones who isolated and kicked out a good committed captain like Younis Khan. The players who put the country’s honour at stake in the past for their own gains need to be penalised more,” he said. PTI Corr SHN SHN 05091019