As new ideas and personnel have come into Pakistan cricket, including the coaches, the captains, players, selectors, and even the chairmen of the boards, the challenges and issues faced in this sport have remained more or less constant. A new selection committee in the Pakistan Cricket Board was announced after the team lost the first Test match of the series against England. To make matters worse, just before the beginning of the second Test, the management decided to sit out even key players like Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Naseem Shah, among others. Nonetheless, Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, does not think that the current state of affairs with the Pakistan team is the fault of those players.
Hussain stated on Sky Cricket: “The problem is not tame Babar Azam or tame Shaheen Afridi or tame Naseem Shah. The problem is at the back in terms of how their cricket operates.”
Earlier, Hussain reminisced with Michael Atherton on the fact that Pakistan has had 26 different selectors for the senior men’s national team over the years. It is not only the selection committee that has undergone sweeping changes of late.
Hussain believes that no sport and no business can survive and thrive while continuing to experience and implement changes on such a frequent basis. In other words, the present condition of the team is their own doing and they cannot choose to avoid any responsibilities.
“I remember reading in the paper that there were 26 different selectors, I think that was also in another paper, but 27. Yet, how many can keep a count of that? How many has England had? Two or three, I guess. One person cannot keep selecting coaches over and over, and even after there is a new captain, new leadership is introduced that is permanent – and then assumes the previous leaders it is impossible to strategize. Every year, the teams trot off to war without strategy, and by the time they win the first Test it becomes Emergency Strategies; you are already on the edge of the cliff,” he explained.
“Amidst their passion for cricket and some negative attributes that one can pardon, they push it however with the current state of the world’s cricket economy being dominated by the big three and they are left to fend for themselves just like the other countries. I empathize with Pakistan cricket a lot and for that we should not be too tough on them. However, sometimes, they tend to cut their own foot, which is unfortunate,” Hussain stated.
Even the former Pakistan cricketer Wasim Akram also lashed out at comments made by Hussain adding that he and Atherton had a point.
As the second Test against England draws closer, Pakistan would be looking to bring a change in their current status without Babar, Shaheen and Naseem.
