Former Pakistan cricketers and fans are fuming over the team’s group-stage exit from the Champions Trophy, which is the first International Cricket Council tournament that the country is hosting in 29 years. But Pakistan’s hopes of defending the crown they won in the last edition in 2017 evaporated after two consecutive defeats.
Pakistan lost the tournament opener to New Zealand and then were defeated by archrivals India to bow out of the race to the semifinals. Bangladesh’s defeat to the Kiwis after that confirmed the home team’s exit, while India and New Zealand qualified for the semis from Group A of the eight-team competition.
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The back-to-back defeats and the tame nature of the twin losses — lost to NZ by 60 runs and to India by 6 wickets — caused a lot of distress among the Pakistan cricket fraternity as they vented out their criticism without holding back.
During one such discussion on a TV show, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar cut his ex-teammate Mohammad Hafeez in between and asked, “Where is the talent in Pakistan cricket?”
While talking about what plagues Pakistan cricket, Hafeez was saying: “There is a lot of talent but lack of planning,” while Shoaib and former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik listened.
“Kaun sa talent hai? Kis cheez ka? (which talent and of what),” Shoaib butted in to cut Hafeez, who stood his ground.
“Talent is there, no doubt,” Hafeez repeated.
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But Shoaib is not the one to back out. He went on to point finger at captain Mohammad Rizwan to further stress on his disagreement with Hafeez.
“Rizwan — kaun sa talent hai? Talent is displayed, baatein nahi, karna padta hai (you have to let your game talk, not with words),” said Shoaib.
“Stars koi andhere mei nahi ban jate, out karna padta hai, run banane padte hain (you don’t produce stars in the dark; you have to take wickets, score runs),” he continued.
“Talent bada hai yeh mai 20 saal se sun raha hu. Koi nahi hai. Hota to dikh na jaata humein 10 saal se (I have been hearing for the last 20 years that there is a lot of talent; there is none. Had it been there, we would have seen it in the last 10 years).”