ISLAMABAD: Dejected over Pakistan’s humiliating T20 series loss defeat in New Zealand, former Test batter Yasir Hameed on Wednesday said that the country’s domestic structure needed to be developed on solid footing.

New Zealand crushed Pakistan by eight wickets in the fifth and final T20 in Wellington on Wednesday to end the series as 4-1 winners as the Salman Ali Agha-led tourists faltered in batting and bowling almost throughout the series.

The 47-year-old Yasir, who played 25 Tests and 56 One-day Internationals from 2003 to 2010, said that there was no dearth of talent in Pakistan but lamented that domestic structure lacked competitive cricket.

“I am dejected and upset over [Pakistan’s] continuous defeats at the hands of New Zealand. We used to win matches against them comfortably in past, but with the passage of time, performance of the Green-shirts touched a new low,” Yasir said while speaking to Dawn in Islamabad.

The former player termed Pakistan’s first-round exit from last year’s T20 Word Cup highly unfortunate, which was followed by another big defeat in the recently-held ICC Champions Trophy in which Mohammad Rizwan-led failed to make the semi-finals after losing group matches to New Zealand and India.

Pakistan experienced a massive jolt in August last year, when they were whitewashed 2-0 by Bangladesh in a home Test series.

“[Our] cricket managers should sit together to find out the reasons behind the Green-shirts’ non-stop decline. In this regard, the task needs to be taken seriously so that defeats in future can be avoided,” Yasir maintained.

On what could be the way forward for Pakistan cricket, Yasir insisted that domestic game required significant uplift.

“There is a need to bring improvement in the structure of our domestic structure which should be made more competitive for producing better-quality players,” he said while pointing out that players on the basis of a few good outings in the domestic circuit should not be picked for national duty.

“Except for phenomenally talented performers, players should not be selected to the national team unless they get first-class cricket experience of at least three years,” Yasir underscored.

He also pointed out poor selection of Pakistan’s playing XI for the T20 series in New Zealand.

“Look, the team management gave chance to [left-arm wrist spinner] Sufiyan Muqeem in last match of the [T20] series and he delivered. Had this talented spinner been given chance in all the matches of the series, the results could have been different,” he said.

Sufiyan in his two overs conceded only six runs and took two important wickets in the fifth T20 against New Zealand.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2025