Inzamam-ul-Haq fears that Pakistan cricket might take the same slippery slope as its hockey team, following the team’s exit in the group stages from the T20 World Cup 2024.
The Pakistan cricket team led by Babar Azam suffered back-to-back defeats to start the world tournament, losing to co-hosts USA and arch-rivals India, which was a major setback to their chances.
The team still had an slim opportunity of qualifying to the Super Eight phase, however, following the washout of the USA-Ireland game, they were knocked out of the tournament. India and USA secured the qualification to the next stage from Group A, instead.
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Why did Inzamam-ul-Haq say about Pakistan’s exit from T20 World Cup 2024?
Former Pakistan cricketer Inzamam-ul-Haq expressed his disappointment following his country’s exit from the World Cup co-hosted in the USA and the Caribbean.
He said that Pakistan cannot simply blame their loss against USA as a one-off because they had been performing poorly against weaker sides in the past year, talking about their loss against Ireland and a series loss against a New Zealand team without its first-team players at home.
“We have not been able to qualify. We can say that we lost to USA by chance, but before that, we lost to Ireland and a weaker New Zealand team, in which about 10-12 players were not from the first team, and we lost to them in our home conditions,” Inzamam said.
While Pakistan still had a chance if the USA-Ireland game was not a rain-washout, Inzamam acknowledged that the team cannot blame the weather or attributed their losses to bad luck. He said that doing so would only take them backwards.
He further suggested that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and its chairman find solutions to the root causes of their losses, considering both internal and external factors affecting the team’s performances.
“We are not going in the right direction. If we continue to keep blaming bad luck, the weather and everything else, we will have completely lost it then. We should learn from our losses and mistakes and become better. They have to course-correct. I hope the PCB and the chairman take the learnings and bring change both inside and outside the Pakistan cricket team. “, he noted.
Most critically, he feared that the Pakistan cricket team is heading down the same failing path as its hockey and squash teams, which at one point of time, were a dominating force, but their downfall came when they failed to learn and adapt to the modern game.
“Just like Pakistan’s hockey team, which used to dominate and were favourites by a big margin in all competitions. We did not work on it and adapt with time, so today’s hockey team is nowhere. Even our squash team, we did not do any developments there. We used to be number one and always win, no one was close to us.”
He suggested that Pakistan cricket is still holding on despite all the troubles because there is enough money involved to keep it running in the country.
“Cricket is still going on because there is some decent money involved, but our game is falling day by day. If we do not develop our cricket system, do not learn from our mistakes, and do not adapt with the modern game, we will fall behind on the world stage,” Inzamam concluded.