LAHORE, March 7: Paceman Wasim Akram said that he had not yet decided to call it a day because of Pakistan team’s debacle in the World Cup-2003 in South Africa.
Talking to journalists at Lahore airport soon after arrival from South Africa with three other members of the Pakistan team on Friday, Wasim said that they all played badly despite having prepared themselves well for the mega event.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saleem Elahi and Abdul Razzaq were the other team members who arrived on the same flight with Wasim.
Wasim went on to say that he considered that it was not a right time for announcing retirement. “I don’t consider it a right time for such a decision and when I will make up my mind I will announce it”, he said.
Wasim said that repeated changes in the batting order caused the failure. He said that Pakistan team went to South Africa with a great determination of winning the mega event, but its ouster even from the first stage was a big upset for the nation and the team also.
Inzamam-ul-Haq, who could not perform to his potential throughout the tournament and scored only 19 runs in six matches also said that he was not ready to announce his retirement.
Inzamam said that he could not find his true form but also added that he was not happy with couple of decisions which went against him.
Manager Shaharyar said that defeats and victories were part and parcel of the game and now the nation and the players should forget this loss and only learn from their mistakes to be prepared for the next competition.
Shaharyar claimed that the players displayed good discipline during the tour and played down the incident of a brawl between Inzamam and Younis Khan during a practice soccer match.” it was not a serious matter and such incidents were a part of the soccer matches” he claimed.
A good number of people had been waiting for the team’s arrival which was scheduled at 1.45am. But they left for their homes disappointed when the flight was delayed and reached Lahore at 6am.