Pakistan cricket\u2019s latest upheaval has drawn sharp criticism from former England captain Nasser Hussain, who said the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had turned a difficult situation into a laughingstock with its handling of the team\u2019s crisis in England.<\/p>\n
Pakistan suffered heavy defeats in the first two Tests at Headingley and Lord\u2019s, after which the PCB sent seven players and two coaches home and replaced Test coach Sarfaraz Ahmed with Mike Hesson for the third and final Test, starting in Birmingham on September 9.<\/p>\n
Among those sent home were Mohammad Rizwan, Salman Ali Agha and Imam-ul-Haq, while pace-bowling coach Umar Gul was also removed.<\/p>\n
Hussain, speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast, said Pakistan\u2019s problems had initially been about their performances, but the PCB\u2019s response had made the situation even worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think after Headingley the world was laughing at Pakistan,\u201d Hussain said. \u201cMy frustration at Lord\u2019s was about their lack of fight — it wasn\u2019t to mock them, but to point out that a great cricketing nation was heading in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut with what\u2019s happened now, they\u2019ve made themselves a joke. They\u2019ve made it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former England skipper was particularly critical of the way Imam\u2019s injury became a public issue. Pakistan\u2019s director of high performance Aaqib Javed questioned the opener\u2019s commitment on live television after cameras showed him batting in the nets before play at Lord\u2019s, despite having suffered a calf strain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just can\u2019t believe the director of high performance can go on TV and run his own player down like that. Either he\u2019s injured or he isn\u2019t,\u201d Hussain said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith other touring teams, when you ask about an injured player, you usually get a straight answer — he\u2019s had a scan, he\u2019ll bat if needed, that sort of thing. The way Imam has been treated is just ridiculous. You have to look after your players. Show some respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hussain\u2019s criticism comes amid wider concerns over the PCB\u2019s handling of the team. Former Pakistan coach Jason Gillespie, who led the side to a 2-1 Test series win over England last year, said the players appeared to be \u201cplaying with fear\u201d under the current setup.<\/p>\n
Gillespie also questioned Aaqib\u2019s selection strategy, saying the selectors \u201cchange their mind like they change their pants — daily\u201d.<\/p>\n
He pointed to Salman Ali Agha\u2019s sudden omission after captaining Pakistan in the first Test as an example of the uncertainty surrounding the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow does that work?\u201d Gillespie asked, adding that there was \u201cdefinitely no communication\u201d between Aaqib and the players.<\/p>\n
The former Australia pacer also claimed some of the players sent home learned of their axing through family, friends and the media rather than directly from the team management.<\/p>\n
Pakistan now face the task of salvaging something from a tour that has descended into chaos both on and off the field, with Hesson and Australian Ashley Noffke taking charge for the remainder of the England series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan cricket\u2019s latest upheaval has drawn sharp criticism from former England captain Nasser Hussain, who said the Pakistan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-880546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880546","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=880546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}