Former Pakistan cricketer Atiq‑uz‑Zaman has said that chief selector Aaqib Javed is ‘making all decisions by himself’ and that it has now become a case of him vs the whole set‑up, even as the fallout from entire changes dominates discussions about the ongoing poor Test tour of England. Following a 194-run defeat at Lord’s in the three-match series, Pakistan dropped seven players – Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Agha, Ali Usman, Aamer Jamal, Awais Zafar, and Khurram Shahzad – and relieved red-ball head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul of their duties as well.
In their place, five uncapped players – Arafat Minhas, Mohammad Imran Jnr, Saad Baig, Mohammad Imran Randhawa, and Razaullah – have been called up along with Saim Ayub and Abdullah Fazal. White-ball head coach Mike Hesson and bowling coach Ashley Noffke have taken charge of the Test team for the game at Edgbaston, starting on September 9 as well.
“I think if I disagree with this conversation, I will be the most biased person on the planet. I think even people who don’t have an understanding of international cricket, or they have not played in it, but they play some sort of cricket, and they watch cricket, they all agree with what everybody is saying,” Atiq-uz-Zaman told IANS in an exclusive conversation from England.
“They all disagree with the decision Pakistan Cricket Board has made. I think it’s an unbelievable, ignorant decision by anybody. Performance is not okay. We can understand that Pakistan’s performance is really, really below average – very poor, I would say. But I have never witnessed these kinds of incidents before in my whole cricket career – that team has been changed during the series and the coach has been sent home just for a reason, because he did not listen to somebody’s advice. It’s unbelievable,” he added.
“I think the Pakistan Cricket Board has become a one-man show now. I think it’s Aaqib Javed versus whole Pakistan now. So, he is making all decisions by himself. He watches a dream and then he tries to execute his dream the next day. There is no process because the problem with Asian countries, especially in Pakistan is if you try to build a process, you lose the power and you don’t want to lose the power. You don’t want to give authority to other people or you don’t want people to grow. You want people to be dictated by you. So, this is kind of a culture he brought in,” he shared.
“I don’t understand one thing – Pakistan, before they went to the West Indies, they had a two-month camp. They were working hard – like about 20-odd players were together. So, it’s been selected by the same people – Aaqib Javed, Sarfaraz, Asad Shafiq and Misbah-ul-Haq. So, you selected the same team. They didn’t perform much in the West Indies, but they won a Test match there, luckily,” he told.
“But they didn’t perform well in England. Before they even went to West Indies, Aaqib Javed had told the media, ‘If Pakistan win one Test match out of four, it will be a really, really good achievement.’ So, they try to lower the expectation of the public on purpose and people will know that, ‘Oh, Pakistan will win. It should be okay.’ So, they try to brainwash people in that sense,” he explained.
Atiq-uz-Zaman, who served as fielding-cum-wicketkeeping coach at its High Performance Centre, further shared that team selection is being done by political favouritism rather than genuine talent in the men’s team as well.
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“Even before they went to England, everybody must know that Pakistan team’s bowling attack was really, really average. If they have a seaming track, then Muhammad Abbas or Mohammad Ali will be a little bit effective. Apart from that, if they haven’t got a pacey bowler, like we used to have Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, and Mohammad Sami, they will not trouble England because they are very advanced in Test cricket,” he stated.
“England, India, South Africa, Australia, they are four prime teams – even New Zealand. Pakistan cannot touch them because they haven’t got those kind of players. They don’t select them and we don’t have fast bowlers. It’s not true to say that we don’t have quick fast bowlers in Pakistan. We do have quick fast bowlers who can bowl 90 miles an hour. But they don’t get selected because of some people who just want to bring those people, who just say to them, ‘Oh, thank you, sir. How are you, sir?’ They will go to your office and say Salaam to you and all. They will be good in front of that person and then they will be selected,” he said.
“Pakistani culture is always like that. It’s always a dictatorial culture. Since we have got 1992 heroes – so-called heroes who won the World Cup, they have been involved in Pakistan cricket for decades and decades and decades and they are the ones who are ruining Pakistan cricket. So, we need to get rid of those people. We need to bring the new mindset with full empathy and respect for the players. If you select one team, you back them up for the whole series,” he added.
“After that, okay, there will be accountability. If you don’t perform – thank you very much, you did not do well. We give you objective feedback on how you can improve and come back to the team and nothing else. You drop them now, you will never see these players again because they will never be picked again,” he stated.
“Now he has come back again and took over a team which is not ready to compete in Test cricket, where the selection committee and coaching staff are not reliable. So, he put himself into trouble. I don’t feel sorry for Babar Azam because I feel very upset about it – more so because he shouldn’t have taken the captaincy. Or if he had taken the captaincy, he should have stood up and said, ‘Okay, if you are sending my coach back, if you are sending my player back, I resign from the captaincy as well.’ But he didn’t. Everybody likes power in Pakistan,” he expressed.
Asked whether Pakistan cricket can recover in the foreseeable future, Atiq-uz-Zaman was skeptical about any quick turnaround.
“I don’t think so. In the near future, Pakistan will never recover from this because the damage is so big. I think the most important thing for the PCB or the chairman to do is bring the quality, skilled, educated people around the National High Performance Centre and Pakistan Cricket Board who can take care of cricketing matters without any politics and even injustice. So, you need to bring those kind of people. Unfortunately, those people do not exist in Pakistan. Some are there, but you will never bring them because few will try to kick them out,” he concluded.
