As the ODI World Cup 2023 draws closer, Pakistan Cricket Board is considering the possibility of sending a psychologist to help the Pakistan cricket team deal with the pressures of the quadrennial tournament. The 13th edition of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup is set to begin on October 5 in India, while the final will be played on November 19.
Pakistan will begin their campaign in the ODI World Cup 2023 against the Netherlands on October 6, the second day of the tournament, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Meanwhile, one of the biggest matches of the group stages for the Men in Green will be against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
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Since 1992, Pakistan has faced the Men in Blue in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup seven times, losing on all those occasions. With history not on their side, the team will be under pressure to deliver that big result in the group stage against the arch-nemesis, to stay on course with regards to winning the coveted trophy for the second time.
In a report from NDTV, a PCB official talked about the potential appointment of a psychologist for the Pakistan cricket team during the ODI World Cup 2023. He was quoted as saying, “Zaka (the Chairman of PCB) is a big believer that having a psychologist with the players will help them, especially when they are not performing well or feeling external pressures of a tour to India.”
“When Zaka Ashraf was Chairman (of PCB) he had got a well-known psychologist Maqbool Babri to work with the players and he also went with them to India in 2012/13,” the PCB official added.
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Apart from the pressures of not defeating India in the tournament, Pakistan has to make the daunting trip to the nation for the first time since their disastrous campaign in the ICC T20 World Cup 2016. Zaka Ashraf reportedly believes that the presence of a psychologist with the national team is imperative for this reason.
