Every person or cricket fan today can resonate with Danish Kaneria, after Pakistan losing badly to England in the 2 test matche. Whatever Danish Kaneria expressed though, everyone thought it over exaggerated or too aggressive; he was right in the sense that he was speaking for the betterment of Pakistan cricket in the future.
Pakistan cricket team is currently famous around the world right now for all the wrong reasons. It’s their own doing in the sense that matters. The play their players exhibited against England was nothing short of embarrassing because even if winning or losing is a part of the game , loosing with a liitle fight given vcan actually be more peaceful than surrendering meekly.
There is no logic, selection committee or play- Danish Kaneria
Danish Kaneria seemed visibly upset with the current performance of the Pakistan team and has minced no words in openly criticizing the downward performance of the team. The more we go in-depth about Danish Kaneria’s we understand the feeling a fan can feel when he sees his team going down, surrendering meekly without a fight, and Danish Kaneria expressed the same feeling too. He said :
“It’s a shame that after 70 years, Pakistan has gone through such a disaster. There is no logic, selection committee, or play. They are just good for nothing. You see, such a bad performance. If a person loses, he tries and fights before losing. The fight has to be visible. Here, there’s no fight. No one knows anything. The team selection committee is responsible, but they are not responding,”
“First you made Babar the captain, then removed him. But there should be a reason. ‘Let’s make Babar the captain. Let it run for 1-3 years.’ But then you removed him from there, then made him captain again. Now you are talking about removing him again. Your cricket won’t improve like this,” Danish Kaneria told IANS in an exclusive interaction
The bowling attack is pathetic- Danish Kaneria
Further, Danish Kaneria was deepening sad to see the bowling downfall of Pakistan cricket. A team which was once renowned for its prolonged pace and spin attack now is finding it difficult to produce even a single bowler or a team of bowlers apart from Mohammad Abbas, who recorded a 5-fer at Lord’s and Danish Kaneria expressed it with no hesitation whatsoever:
“And the bowling attack is pathetic. Who is Muhammad Shahzad? Where did he come from? He doesn’t have any line or length. No swing, no reverse swing. Nothing. Then you see the batting conditions. Which players do you bring? I don’t understand Babar Azam. You can’t hit a drive openly in England. There is seam and swing in England,” said Danish Kaneria.
“You have to play square there. This is common sense. As a bowler, I am telling you that if you have played so much cricket in England, then you play square there because the ball seams and swings. That bowler makes you hit two fours. You hit fours on the cover drive. People clap,” he added.
Sarfaraz Ahmed is not the right person to coach- Danish Kaneria
Further, Danish Kaneria also emphasized the need to have a strong domestic structure in the Pakistan setup in order to produce more result-driven players who can later perform on the bigger stage when opportunity arises. Danish Kaneria emphasized drawing Pakistan’s comparisons with compatriot Bangladesh as an examples:
“The administration should play an important role. You bring good people in it who are honest who don’t cheat who don’t pick up the players on the sheet based on their relations with them. If they are good, then pick them up. But there should be accountability. You bring such people. Then you focus on coaching,” said Danish Kaneria.
“Give a year’s time. Bring in a good coach. But this is not a coaching material. Sarfaraz is not the right person. No matter how much he has played but he is not that experienced. Umar is a fast bowler. He understands. But they need to build up a team. You see the coach of Bangladesh who is doing well,” he stated.
“One of the best coaches ever. You bring such a coach from outside because they work on discipline. They don’t let anyone come into their work. But PCB can’t handle if they are disciplined. Aqib Javed, who first became a director then became a selector, and he kept getting some positions one after the other. But where is your cricket going? You see what has happened to cricket? I mean, you don’t have any bowling or batting,” he added.
To counter a strong selection process, Danish Kaneria even went further and proposed a robust selection system to produce players who will atleast give a fight to others rather than surrendering. He concluded by saying :
“We also used to lose. But fight and lose. At least fight. Fight, try at least! But there is no effort.”
Pakistan, with a renewed squad will now face England in the final 3rd Test starting on 9th September and will look to salvage the pride, but for Danish Kaneria it would be more worth a see if a team gives England enough fight in a Test match. Then only his assessment would bear fruit in real-time sensing.
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