Pakistan’s early setbacks in the ongoing T20 World Cup opened a can of worms in the nation’s cricket setup. The most respected veterans in Pakistan namely Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis unfortunately chose to heap humiliation on the leadership of Captain Babar Azam. This was uncalled for and should have been avoided. Such severe condemnation in the middle of an ongoing tournament will only demoralise the team further and will have no beneficial effect.
One would have expected that senior ex-players like Wasim and Waqar would have adopted a mature approach. They should have chosen their words carefully. It would have been better if the seniors had come up with helpful suggestions and advice rather than harsh disapproval of the captain and his policies. All said and done they are your players. Help them when they are down. Do not destroy them further. Seen in this light, the attitude of the two veterans defies logic.
All genuine cricket lovers want every team to play at its best. Then only good cricket matches can be witnessed. If any team goes down without a fight then the overall standard of cricket goes down. When such a thing happens often, then it is time to search for answers behind the scenes. It means that the team is under pressure from the outside. It indicates that the players are no longer confident. They are scared of failure. And the more you are afraid to fail, the more likelihood there is that you will definitely fail.
All coaches and experienced seniors know this. So when the team is doing badly, that is not the time to speak harshly about the players. Instead one has to build up confidence and give advice on how to tackle the rivals. It was left to former Indian star Sunil Gavaskar to boost the morale of the Pakistani players.
Gavaskar said: “Sometimes defeat can be demoralising. But to lift yourself up, you sometimes need a manager who can tell you to forget about the defeat. Because you have that ability. Two years back in Australia, India were all out for 36 in a Test match. But the way the team was handled by Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun, Ajinkya Rahane and Vikram Rathour helped the team to come back. The support staff instilled that belief again. Pakistan needs that kind of support and if they get it, they can still turn things around,” he said.
Shouldn’t the Pakistan seniors have said similar things? Instead, they chose to be carping and caviling. They labeled skipper Babar as insecure and selfish, saying that he would never sacrifice his batting spot even to help his own team. Waqar suggested that as a leader, Babar had failed dismally. The two seniors seemed to have forgotten that they themselves were big failures when they were hammered by Sachin Tendulkar in the 2003 World Cup. Sachin went on the rampage. It happens. That is what sport is like.
But despite all that criticism, Pakistan chalked up its first win against the Netherlands later. Did Sunil Gavaskar’s few words have a morale boosting effect ? Nobody can tell for sure. But this is what should have been done by the Pakistan seniors. This immature and emotional approach has hurt the cause of Pakistan cricket for many years. Despite producing some of the most brilliant players in the world, Pakistan has not been able to achieve the heights that it could have.
In this respect, India has done a slightly better job. It could be because in India the approach is more constructive and less destructive. Although that does not mean things are perfect in India. But there is a little more maturity in the way the players are handled. For the sake of seeing better cricket contests, one hopes that the Pakistan think-tank will come up with constructive efforts and that the seniors will help the team to rebuild after every defeat. Cricket lovers wish to see overall better cricket from all teams in the ongoing tournament.
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