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Shoaib Malik of Pakistan during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup match between Pakistan and New Zealand at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on October 26, 2021 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. – AFP<\/p>\n
ABU DHABI: Former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik has shed light on the reasons why Sri Lanka\u2019s cricketing structure is stronger than Pakistan\u2019s, following the Islanders\u2019 final group-stage clash against Afghanistan at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Speaking in an interview with a local sports platform, Malik pointed out the crucial role of Sri Lanka\u2019s school, college, and club cricket in producing well-groomed players.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir school and college cricket is very strong, where actual players and young talent are groomed before moving to the next level. That system has always been there, which is why the players coming through are usually well-prepared. Their club cricket is also very strong,\u201d Malik said.<\/p>\n
He emphasised that when both school\/college cricket and club cricket thrive in a country, players are nurtured from the grassroots level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever these two elements exist in any country \u2014 strong school and college cricket alongside strong club cricket \u2014 player development happens naturally from the ground up,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The veteran all-rounder contrasted this with Pakistan\u2019s declining domestic structure, lamenting the disappearance of organised school and college competitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our case, club cricket \u2014 and especially school and college cricket \u2014 has ended. Because of that, players here don\u2019t learn at the school, college, or club level,” he stated.<\/p>\n
“They start learning only at the A-team stage. And if proper grooming doesn\u2019t happen there, they end up learning only after making it to the Pakistan national team. That\u2019s a huge disadvantage for us, whereas their advantage is that their school, college, and club systems are still intact,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
It is pertinent to mention that the ACC Men\u2019s Asia Cup 2025 Super Four stage has now been confirmed after Sri Lanka\u2019s convincing six-wicket win over Afghanistan at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The result ended Afghanistan\u2019s campaign and ensured Bangladesh\u2019s progression.<\/p>\n
In Group B, Sri Lanka finished unbeaten with three wins out of three, collecting six points and boasting a net run rate of 1.278. Bangladesh secured second place with four points despite a negative NRR of -0.270.<\/p>\n
Group A fixtures are still ongoing, but India and Pakistan have already sealed their qualification. India will play their final group match against Oman on Friday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Super Four stage kicks off on Saturday in Dubai with Sri Lanka facing Bangladesh, followed by a high-voltage clash between arch-rivals Pakistan and India on Sunday at the same venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Monday has been declared a rest day, before Pakistan take on Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi on September 23.<\/p>\n
Despite having a better net run rate than Bangladesh, Afghanistan were knocked out after their defeat to Sri Lanka. Batting first, Afghanistan posted 169-8 in 20 overs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Veteran all-rounder Mohammad Nabi provided late fireworks with a blistering 60 off just 22 deliveries, including three fours and six sixes at a strike rate of 272.72.<\/p>\n
In reply, Sri Lanka chased down the target in 18.4 overs with four wickets to spare. Kusal Mendis anchored the innings with a composed 74 not out from 52 balls, featuring 10 boundaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He received valuable support from Kamindu Mendis (26 off 13) and Kusal Perera (28 off 20), guiding the side to a comfortable victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shoaib Malik of Pakistan during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup match between Pakistan and New Zealand at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[19763,64,63,740,18017,15299,11885,103556,85,1210,17274],"class_list":["post-155093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-asia-cup-2025","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-malik","tag-pakistan","tag-pakistan-cricket","tag-shoaib-malik","tag-sports","tag-sri-lanka","tag-sri-lanka-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}