ISLAMABAD: Legendary batsman and former Test captain Javed Miandad wants the underperforming players of the Pakistan ODI team to be dropped for future contests.
Talking to APP, Miandad urged the national selectors to monitor those batsmen who keep on playing excessive dot balls thus proving a burden on the team in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy in England and Wales.
Miandad was responding to a query regarding opener Azhar Ali (9 runs off 22 balls) and Mohammad Hafeez (26 off 53) who performed below par in Pakistan’s group match against South Africa in Birmingham on Wednesday.
“The selectors lack vision, they should notice these below par performances and should get rid of those players who are proving burden on the team,” Miandad, a veteran of 124 Tests and 233 ODIs, emphasised.
Miandad, however, lauded young Fakhar Zaman’s show (31 off 23) in the South Africa game, saying the left-handed opener played impressively, “but we should not at once create hype when a player or team performs as it is their duty to play well on the field”.
“Players are getting hefty amounts for playing cricket and it is just like a job for them, as like any other person,” Miandad, the hero of 1992 World Cup, underlined.
Speaking about Pakistan’s next group match at the Champions Trophy against Sri Lanka in Cardiff on June 12, he said all teams were performing well in the event and Pakistan would have to produce some out-of-the-box winning shows to excel in the elite eight-team tournament.
Miandad added, “In order to compete with international teams, we need to improve our domestic cricket. In some cricket-playing countries, the standard of domestic competition is greater than international cricket which is the reason they have plentiful of talented players emerging from their domestic circuit.
“On the other hand, the standard of our domestic cricket is not up to the mark. Therefore, talented players are not coming up,” Miandad said and urged the Pakistan Cricket Board to improve the quality of domestic contests.
Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2017
