In a recent development, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is planning to ban former Pakistan cricketers associated with the PCB and current players from appearing on television shows. Recently, Pakistan cricket team faced severe backlash for its lackluster performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024.
Many former and current cricketers have criticized the performance of the team and the players. Pakistan players are visibly upset with comments made by former cricketers as they feel it creates a sense of anger among fans.
Watch: Babar Azam faces severe backlash in Pakistan parliament after team’s early exit from T20 World Cup 2024
Senior players don’t want former cricketers to appear as pundits on TV
According to Cricket Pakistan reports, Pakistan team veterans discussed the matter with the PCB during the Central Contract negotiations. The players have demanded that former cricketers associated with the PCB, as well as current players, should not be allowed to appear on television as pundits.
An anonymous player mentioned the name of Ahmed Shehzad, who has recently made headlines for his criticism of the team’s performance. The player said that until Shehzad had hopes of returning to the Pakistan team, he was cautious, but as soon as he realized that there was no chance of his return, he started being aggressive with criticism from the players. players.
Recently, during a national television show, Shehzad criticized senior players for backing their favorite cricketers and friends instead of deserving players. Pakistan’s current ODI and Test opener Imam-Ul-Haq was also present among the panel of experts.
Shehzad, 32, is currently out of the national team. The opening batsman last played an international match in October 2019, which was a T20I against Sri Lanka in Lahore. Shehzad played 13 Tests, 81 ODIs and 59 T20Is for Pakistan, scoring over 5000 runs. He holds the record for the only T20I century scored by a Pakistani in a World T20.
The player also claimed that Mohammad Hafeez also spoke against his own team in foreign media, which is not appropriate. Hafeez served as Pakistan team manager a few months ago.
Hafeez recently participated in a show called ‘Club Prairie Fire’ on YouTube channel, where he criticized Pakistan’s disappointing run in the T20 World Cup 2024.
Many former Pakistan cricketers criticized their team for their poor performance in the T20 World Cup 2024. Ahmed Shehzad, Basit Ali and Wasim Akram are some of those big names.
Pakistan’s performance in the 2024 T20 World Cup
Pakistan were eliminated from the group stage of the T20 World Cup for the first time. The 2009 champions never got going as they lost their first match to the United States in the Super Over.
In the next game, they lost to arch-rivals India by a narrow margin of 6 runs. These losses severely affected the team’s chances of reaching the Super 8 stage. Despite victories over Ireland and Canada in their final two group matches, the Men in Green suffered an early exit from the tournament.