New Delhi: Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has been left shocked by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s decision to sack Test head coach and send seven players back home midway through their ongoing Test series against England.
PCB hit the panic button after Pakistan’s crushing defeat in the 2nd Test against England at Lord’s.
Pakistan lost the Test match to concede the three-match series 2-0 with back-to-back defeats. Along with sending seven players home and sacking Sarfaraz as the Test coach, Pakistan also removed former pacer Umar Gul as the bowling coach, sparking criticism from all corners over their poor decision-making.
Criticising PCB’s knee-jerk reaction to the Lord’s Test defeat, Raja said he was shocked after finding out that the board has decided to send players home midway through the series, stating that he has never seen anything like that before in Pakistan cricket.
“A lot of shock. This is not done in cricket. And so why have they done it? Obviously, they’re feeling the heat. But in any circumstances during the series, this has never happened,” Raja said, speaking about PCB’s decision.
Pakistan got off to a poor start in the Test series against England, suffering a crushing defeat by an innings and 103 runs at Headingley. Their batting frailties were left exposed in the series opener and further exploited by the hosts in the 2nd Test at Lord’s. England beat Pakistan by 194 runs in the 2nd Test to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
In the wake of the defeat, the PCB decided to take some tough calls as it sent home a total of seven players from the squad, including senior batters Mohammad Rizwan and Salman Ali Agha. Ali Usman, Muhammad Awais Zafar, Aamir Jamal and Khurram Shahzad are the other players who were released from the squad.
Pakistan have created a world record: Ramiz Raja
Taking a dig at the Pakistan Cricket Board over the decision, former chairman Raja said the board has created a world record by sending so many players home midway through a Test series. He also called the situation unprecedented and said he is not happy with.
“So Pakistan have actually created a world record,” said Raja.
“I am really, really not happy with this situation,” he added.
The former PCB chairman also compared the decision with football, where teams often dismiss managers during the season. However, Raja said such things don’t happen in cricket and that Pakistan should have waited for the series to get over before making those calls.
“This is more like football, midway through the season, you fire the manager. But this is a series that is happening. So they could have easily waited for another 10 days before taking a call,” he added.