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‘Jaahil, incompetent’: Shoaib Akhtar explodes at PCB chief Mohsin Naqvi after Pakistan’s humiliating defeat to India
Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar fired harsh criticism at Mohsin Naqvi and the Pakistan team after a beatdown at the hands of India in Colombo.
The fallout from Pakistan’s horrific showing in the rivalry match against India is beginning to reach calamitous proportions. After all the build-up, discourse, and drama in the weeks leading up to Sunday’s showpiece at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, only one team truly came to play, as India made the scoresheet 8-1 in their favour at T20 World Cups with a 61-run demolition.
Shoaib Akhtar has always been an outspoken critic of the Pakistan team;s often-baffling decisions, and he took aim straight at Mohsin Naqvi, as well as some of the leadership figures within the team, including Babar Azam, as the finger-pointing began in record time for the PCB.
“If you make me the chairman for this channel, I won’t know how this works. Now you’ve made someone chairman, who doesn’t know what cricket is,” complained Akhtar while speaking on ABP News after the match. “What can we do? How will this team work?”
Naqvi has become a massive figure in the world of cricket, notorious following the scenes at the Asia Cup where he seemingly refused to hand over the trophy to the victorious Indian team. Naqvi also serves as theinterior minister in the Pakistan government, but his credentials in cricket administration remain unproven.
‘Incompetent and ignorant person…’
Naqvi’s selection was doubted, but Akhtar didn’t stop himself from throwing jabs at certain senior members who simply haven’t been getting the job done.
“You have a guy you’ve turned into a superstar, and he can’t win you a single game. You’ve made a star of a guy who can’t give you 10 overs,” explained Akhtar, before swiftly turning back to levelling the blame for this at Naqvi’s PCB.
“The biggest crime in the world is giving an incompetent guy the biggest job. When an incompetent and jaahil [ignorant] person is given a big job, any sort of chaos and damage can happen,” said Akhtar.
All in all, with India at the top of the group and simply looking like a far superior team than Pakistan, the writing seems to be on the wall for many Pakistani pundits and supporters – this is set to be an unbridgeable gap until a concerted effort is made to regain the stature of Pakistan cricket beyond the financial boosts of it all.
“India have gone very far ahead, and we have been left very far behind. It’s all about TRP now (television rating points). We aren’t going to see any fight on the pitch, but I hope Pakistan can beat Namibia, reach Super 8s, and some kind of miracle can happen,” concluded Akhtar. “I’ll keep backing Pakistan.”
The team remain likely to progress despite the loss, but need to get over the line against Namibia in order to avoid a humiliating group stage exit this coming week.
