If media reports are to be believed, Pakistan's cricketers are going to have a deep hole in their pockets for their disastrous performance in the T20 World Cup.
In what should be a first instance in cricket, the players will be penalised ₹50 lakh (Pakistani rupees) each for not performing as per expectations.
The Pakistani cricket team has not done well in the last so many ICC events and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), under chairman Mohsin Naqvi, has now decided to put their foot down. A report in tribune.com.pk says the decision was taken much before their ouster -- when they lost to India in their group game.
In the previous T20 World Cup in 2024 that was held in the USA and the West Indies, Pakistan had even failed to reach the Super 8s, following losing to minnows USA and arch-rivals India. After which Naqvi had promised surgery, reacting to reports that the Pakistani players don't get along well with each other, and they often keep personal ambitions above team goals.
Two years on, nothing has changed for the Pakistani cricket team. They once again lost to India last month in their group match. They barely won against the Netherlands. Although they reached the Super 8s, there they couldn't really up the ante, and as a result failed to reach the semis. Against Sri Lanka in their last Super 8 game, they, after scoring 212, needed to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 or less to reach the semis. Forget that, they barely won the match, by just five runs. If not for a late collapse, they could have scored 20-30 runs more.
{{/usCountry}}Two years on, nothing has changed for the Pakistani cricket team. They once again lost to India last month in their group match. They barely won against the Netherlands. Although they reached the Super 8s, there they couldn't really up the ante, and as a result failed to reach the semis. Against Sri Lanka in their last Super 8 game, they, after scoring 212, needed to restrict Sri Lanka to 147 or less to reach the semis. Forget that, they barely won the match, by just five runs. If not for a late collapse, they could have scored 20-30 runs more.
{{/usCountry}}According to the report, PCB's officials believe players must be fined for their poor show, using the argument that they also get rewards when they play well and win.
But what about Sahibzada Farhan?
Pakistan captain Salman Agha had himself admitted that they were below par after their consoling, narrow win over Sri Lanka. “If you look at the whole tournament and I had to sum it up, we underperformed. Our middle order never performed, and we over-relied on Sahibzada [Farhan] for our runs.” he said.
It will be interesting to see how Sahibzada Farhan reacts to all this, considering he was the only player in the Pakistani side that performed well all through. He scored 383 runs in seven matches at an average of 76.60, and surpassed Virat Kohli's record of most runs in a single edition. Virat had scored 319 runs in the 2014 T20 World Cup. Farhan also scored two centuries, a first in the history of T20 World Cup.
Who knows, maybe he'll be spared!