LAHORE - Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar M Khan has said that there is no immediate plan to sack Azhar Ali as one-day team captain saying he is not alone responsible for the team’s losses.
Talking to the Nawa-i-Waqt on telephone, Shaharyar said: “When Pakistan Test team managed to book No 1 slot, no one from higher level bothers to appreciate and reward the team but when the ODI team, which has been struggling to improve, gives poor performances, everyone starts criticising the team and cricket board. We also want the ODI team to perform well but it needs time to improve as it won’t improve within a night, instead it will take two to three years to be among the top ODI rank teams.
“Azhar Ali is a good captain and he is striving to lead the team well. But it is clear that we are not going to remove him as a captain instead we will give him time to improve his captaincy and get better results. Azhar is not just the main reason behind the defeats, instead each and every player of the team is equally responsible for the series of team losses. We will discuss about this matter after the series,” he added.
The PCB chief said that there was a dire need to change the ODI cricket techniques and style. “The world is playing very fast cricket and giving 325 to 350 runs target while we are still playing old-styled cricket where we think giving target of 250 to 270 runs is enough, and this is the reason why we have been facing series of ODI defeats.”
He said the selection committee had assigned task of finding fresh talent which was the dire need of the hour. “We need promising and top quality youngsters, who may replace the current lot with their outstanding performances. If we will follow merit, we will manage to get such quality stuff.”
Shaharyar said that after the series, the head coach would definitely tighten the rope around the players because he surely needed to be strict to get better results. “I know that some players may feel bad due to the strict behaviour of the coach, but for the betterment in our cricket, we have to take such ruthless steps.”
“It is the basic right of elected Parliamentarians to ask the PCB about the cricket teams’ performances. But they must also appreciate us for Test team getting No 1 slot in the ICC Test rankings. I admit that ODI team performance is very bad but we will consult think tanks how we can improve our ODI team’s performance and soon everyone will see, the same team will start delivering and managing crucial victories for Pakistan,” Shaharyar concluded.