Pakistan cricket team will return home after playing against Ireland today in Fort Lauderhill, Florida as they are out of the T20 World Cup 2024.
Babar Azam and Co. failed to qualify for the Super 8 as they only won one group game against Canada and lost two matches against the USA and India.
Due to their exit from the competition, the Pakistan cricket team has been facing immense backlash and there have been calls to remove players and change the captain.
However, former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman, Ramiz Raja has backed the team and urged fans and former cricketers to speak carefully.
“I understand that people get frustrated and say things (out of frustration) but I believe that the ex-players should be careful in building their narrative on the truth. You don’t have to give such statements right now. What you need to do is look at what needs to be done from the ground up. The process is a long one and it won’t be achieved overnight,” stated Raja on a local channel.
He believes that the team is already unsettled and these statements are going to hurt the team more, “The team is already unsettled and has been unsettled for quite some time due to constant changes at the board level. It is just not possible that the team did not get affected by it. It was apparent, the confusion regarding the selection and bringing back players from retirement and then we lost a game.
“Our performance has been at the borderline for quite some time, we received a wake-up call long ago and now you are going to give a knee-jerk reaction by making emotional decisions. England also returned like us from the Cricket World Cup in 2022. They did not remove Jos Buttler from the captaincy and they kept the same nucleus and further rectified their mistakes because they had to move forward,” the former cricketer added.
Raja also believes that the team is full of superstars and they need to be supported by everyone, “All of these players are ours. They are future stars of Pakistan. Except for three or four players, the rest of the team is full of future assets. If you know that this is going to be the nucleus then you need to develop them, you need to inflict intelligence of cricket in them. And that is only going to happen if the dugout is free of politics, the selection won’t be forced on players, captains won’t be changed again and again and back the team when they need it.”
He also urged the players to examine where they went wrong and what changes they needed to make, “The team also need to introspect itself. Look at what they are doing wrong if it is an issue of temperament, skill, game awareness or execution.”
- Ramiz Raja
