Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma followed Sachin Tendulkar but no hero in Pakistan since 2002, opines Shoaib Akhtar
Rohit Sharma (L) and Virat Kohli
|| BCCI Image
Shoiab Akhtar has said that while the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma followed the footsteps of Sachin Tendulkar and played proper shots to help India achieve global supremacy in cricket, Pakistan cricket went downhill after 2002. He added that Pakistan batsmen just try to smash everything.
Akhtar, the world's fastest bowler till date, also blamed the mediocrity of "average leaders" to "kill" Pakistan cricket. The 46-year-old has very frequently urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to include the legends of the game from the country in the decision-making process.Â
"Our decline came when mediocrity came in our board. Average people thrive a lot in mediocrity. Mediocrity is the killer of Pakistan cricket, they kept bringing in average people, average leaders and we started declining. This has started since 2002. We had someone who played fast, he destroyed everything, then we had someone who played slow and he also destroyed everything. In the middle of all this we couldn't identify out hero. Maybe our hero should have been someone like Mohammad Yousuf.
"In your country Sachin (Tendulkar) became the hero, not someone who played fast. Virat (Kohli) and Rohit (Sharma) followed him. We are trying to smash everything, not playing anything along the ground,"Â Akhtar told on Aaj Tak's Salaam Cricket 2021.Â
Akhtar echoed PCB president Ramiz Raja's recent statements that the board has to stop depending on the ICC's funding.
"PCB has to run like a corporate and for that till how long can we be dependent on the ICC's funding. Till how long can we be dependent on playing India when they are not ready to play against you. You have to go into asset-building. First of all start your own broadcasting," he said.
Harbhajan Singh also minced no words and boldly asserted that, unlike their glorious past, Pakistan now lacks quality players who can challenge the Virat Kohli-led team.Â
"There was a time when Pakistan had a very strong team and so did we and that led to some great competitions. In the last 10 years or so, Pakistan's level of cricket, in my opinion has gone down. No batsman seems to have arrived who makes me feel that they can score consistently in Test cricket," said Harbhajan on Salaam Cricket 2021.
"T20 is a format in which anyone can score runs. If I look back at maybe 1998, when Anil Kumble took 10 wickets in an innings, Pakistan had batsmen like Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saeed Anwar, Salim Malik, they had bowlers like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Saqlain Mushtaq.
"Today it doesn't look Pakistan can compete with India because they have maybe one or two players of that level in their team. The teams that really push India are England or Australia," he said.
India and Pakistan kick off their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign against each other on Sunday at Dubai International Cricket Stadium.Â
