Former Pakistan batter Mudassar Nazar has blamed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for growing tensions between players like Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi. He also asserted that the board should provide enough time and support to the captain.
Babar resigned as Pakistan captain for the second time on Wednesday, having previously stepped down last year after a disappointing performance at the 2023 ODI World Cup, following which Shaheen was appointed as the limited-overs skipper.
However, the pacer was quickly removed from the role after a thrashing 4-1 series defeat to New Zealand, with the PCB reinstating Babar as the white-ball captain in March this year.
“It is our own doing (the friction between Babar and Shaheen). We shouldn’t have messed around with the set-up,” Mudassar told PTI.
“There was one set captain, we should have given him a longer term and if somebody else had been made a captain, then he should have had a decent go at it. And not been thrown out straight away,” Mudassar added.
The 68-year-old also blasted the PCB for neglecting the mounting issues within Pakistan cricket, asserting that the board bears full responsibility for the sport’s decline in the nation.
“It goes in a cycle. In Pakistan, yes, we are down at the moment. A lot of that is our own fault, the way we run cricket in Pakistan. Nobody has addressed the issue seriously. We are changing the cricket board after every two, three, four months, a year,” Mudassar said.
“That hasn’t helped either. But I’m hopeful one day Pakistan cricket will come up and surely it will because before you know it, you get three, four new players who come in and start to make a name for themselves. And there you go, the Pakistan team becomes one of the top teams again,” Mudassar added.
“Pakistan has got a lot of talented players. Especially when I was there, five years ago, even the net bowler was bowling in excess of 145. And something has happened, they have got lost somewhere in the system,” Mudassar further added.
Mudassar also compared Babar to Virat Kohli and said that the Indian star batter is one of the greatest players to ever grace the game while the former Pakistan captain is yet to make a name for himself.
“I mean there is a hell of a difference between the two players. Virat will be remembered as one of the greatest who has graced the game. Babar has still got to make a name for himself,” Mudassar said.
The former Pakistan head coach also showed praise for Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and said that he could watch both him and Kohli bat for hours.
“I love to watch Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. When they are at the peak and playing well, it is fantastic to watch them. You could sit in front of the TV for hours and just watch those two play,” the 68-year-old concluded.
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