SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Pakistani captain Misbah ul Haq has announced retirement from ODI. He was looking quite disappointed and shattered but he hit hard his critics while talking to media. He lambasted certain TV critics and analysts for passing sarcastic remarks on his performance. He said that he was not responsible for every blunder of the team. The tragedy with the Pakistan cricket team is that it has to fight at a number of fronts besides facing rival teams. It has to sustain unnecessary as well as irresponsible media hype, poor handling of cricket affairs by the management, selection problems, players’ internal rifts and last but not the least pressure from almost 18 million cricket lovers who cannot accept defeat and are always ready to humiliate their heroes if they fail to perform. Without being too loud and without naming names, he was aggressive and quite a lot of what he said made sense. It doesn’t take too deep an inquiry to establish that much of what was said against — and not so much about — him or his team in the media reeked, if not of personal vendetta, then of a propensity to be sensational.
As indicated by Misbah, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) might face a bigger challenge regarding the selection of a new caption of the team now. The PCB chairman has offered Misbah to continue the captaincy but he is not ready to become a scapegoat any more. He has been a victim of severe criticism for the last few years despite maintaining a good batting average. Misbah scored 5,122 runs from 162 ODIs. His average of 44.82 as captain is the best for any Pakistan player.
Pakistanis must now show generosity even if some are a little perturbed by some of the reactions by the outgoing ODI captain. The criticism must always continue — about what Misbah lacked as player and captain — just as his rebuttal should in no way prevent recognition of his contribution to national cricket.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
