A storm of criticism is blowing through Pakistan cricket after the country’s crushing 3-0 Test defeat in England and dramatic decisions over the squad. The legendary fast bowler and former captain Wasim Akram has now poured fuel on that fire. At a charity event in Manchester, he expressed sharp anger about the leadership of Pakistan’s current captain Babar Azam and what he called his ignorance, asking whether he had gone there to sell boots.
Akram’s anger arose essentially over a recent remark by Babar Azam. At the toss for the third Test against England, Babar was asked what he thought about the major decisions to send seven players home from the squad abruptly and to dismiss the coach. Babar replied that he had no idea about the changes and that the matter was entirely new to him as well.
It is that answer Akram seized on. He asked: “At the toss Babar was asked, ‘Seven of your cricketers have been sent back, the coach and the bowling coach have been sent back. What do you think?’ And he said, ‘I have no idea.’ So did you go there to sell boots?”
Akram also said that if the leader of the team is not firm in his own position and is cornered by one-sided decisions of this kind from the board, it has a severely negative effect on the whole team’s performance. In his view, when the situation was passing into the board’s control, Babar should have given up the responsibility of Test captain after the second Test and continued simply as a player.
Cricket analysts say that because the present PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi also serves as interior minister, former cricketers generally place more of the blame on the captain than on the board. The question has arisen, however, of where this extreme lack of communication between the board and the captain will leave Pakistan cricket.