Ever since Pakistan Cricket team was handed embarrassing defeat from Sri Lanka in recently concluded 2022 Asia Cup in United Arab of Emirate, Pakistan Cricket Board is facing massive backlash from its own cricket fraternity for prioritizing players in the team on the basis of favoritism over talent.
Days after prolific all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez raised the issue via a social media post, another prominent cricketer has now come heavy on its own board for showing favoritism while selecting players and even claimed that such grave issue prevails in the Pakistan’s domestic circuit as well.
While speaking with Cricket Pakistan, Pakistan’s wicket-keeper batter Kamran Akmal stated he has been openly highlighting the issue of ‘liking and disliking in team’ from last four to five years, but all his efforts to improve the structure of Pakistan’s Cricket has gone ‘unheard.’
“They dropped me in domestic season and replaced with a non-regular wicketkeeper. Pakistan Cricket is declining under current hierarchy of PCB. I have been talking about players being selected on the basis of favoritism over talent and potential, but no one is paying attention. The same thing is happening in the domestic cricket. This will certainly damage Pakistan cricket as these things are coming out and have now been obvious,” said Kamran.
While stating his critical opinion, Akmal lashed out at the PCB Chief Ramiz Raja and termed him ‘ignorant, and egoistic’ for putting all the blame on cricketers, and not taking accountability of failures.
“There is hardly any coordination in management. I have seen that all the blames are associated with players and management does take on to them. The past three coaches also blamed players and didn’t accept that our decisions were wrong. PCB chief must know the value of a cricketer is whether he is part of an international team or not. If players can't make their way into the national side, should they also not play domestic?" he asked.