‘Mistake to make him captain’: Veteran Pakistan star BLASTS Babar Azam following Champions Trophy debacle

Pakistan cricket is currently going through a major crisis and this isn’t something that was recently built. A major part of the blame for Pakistan’s current situation goes to former skipper Babar Azam, who allegedly selected his ‘friends’ in the team and overlooked others.

Veteran Pakistani cricketer Ahmed Shehzad, who himself has been on the sidelines for a few years now, accused Babar of ‘favouritism’ when he was the skipper of the national team.

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“It’s sad to see him in this condition. When he started his career, it seemed he would break all records for Pakistan. But now, everything is in front of you-players don’t fail for this long. It was a mistake to make a performer the captain. After becoming captain, he surrounded himself with friends and selected them for the team, disregarding merit. When you favour friends over deserving players, the wheels of domestic cricket stop turning, as genuine performers don’t get enough chances,” Shehzad told Sports Today.

The veteran Pakistan star also stated that ‘merit’ hasn’t always been the criteria for selection and added that political interference plays a massive role in not only the selection of players, management or even the coaching staff.

“Political interference has always been there; there’s no doubt. But the condition of the team is not because of the last two years, this has been happening for a while now. When you don’t bring in reforms, when you don’t honour merit, and when you don’t control indiscipline in the team, sooner or later, these results will come,” Shehzad said.