Murder of merit..!

Murder of merit – Accountability mantra of the PCB.

The CEO PCB Mr. Wasim Khan while announcing the selection of Misbah ul Haq and Waqar Younis, as Head Coach + Chief Selector and Bowling Coach, respectively, specifically committed with the nation that these two persons will face accountability in performance of their duties, from the PCB.

However, after loss of seven consecutive home and away matches the above named two officials have faced no accountability.

Yes, players are facing accountability, as if, all faults lies with them; even if, Test players are asked to perform in the T20 matches and T20 players are expected to perform miracles, in the Test matches.

Now, again blunders have been committed in the selection of the squad for the two home Tests to be played against the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team, in December 2019.

Squad:
Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket keeper), Babar Azam, Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah, and Usman Shinwari.

What went wrong in selection? – suggestions

1. Azhar Ali He is past his prime which can be easily observed from his scores in the last 10 innings:
9, 9, 5, 39, 15, 0, 6, 2, 9, 36 = 130
Average 13 runs per innings.
It is a sure recipe for the disaster and an insult of the national team to give captainship to a player with an average of 13 runs in his last 10 innings.
It is high time PCB must invest in players like Khurram Manzoor, Ehsan Ali, Zeeshan Ashraf and Umar Amin.

2. Fawad Alam His selection is a classic case of PCB’s entire selection committee members buckling under the media pressure. Otherwise, if he was fit today to be called for selection after a full decade (a world record), why the same selection committee dropped him from the squad for the Australian tour.
Whether, Fawad Alam performs or not after ten years of discard, is another matter, but this most unprofessional lost cow type selection committee, must be disbanded, in the larger interest of the cricket in Pakistan, sooner than later.

3. Muhammad Rizwan After his decent performance in Australia, he has earned his selection and now must further prove his abilities, as a wicket keeper cum batsman in the Test arena.

4. Babar Azam He is the only cricketer in Pakistan who can get automatic selection in any team of the world.
Now, he should also have been appointed the captain of the Pakistani Test team, as well, mainly due to the reason that Azhar Ali doesn’t deserve his place in the squad.

5. Abid Ali He has proved his mettle in the ODI version. Looks that deliberately he was not included in the T20 squad of Australia to unjustifiably push up Imam ul Haq and as a consolation, he was included in the Test squad (for NOT playing in the two Test matches vs Australia). Now, PCB has reposed confidence in his abilities for the Test matches (one of the reasons for losing so badly against Australia was not including him in the playing eleven).
It is hoped that he will come out with flying colours (if given chance by including him in the playing eleven against Sri Lankan team; as selectors favourite Imam ul Haq is miserably out of form) from the toughest test of his life, which will automatically catapult him to overnight stardom.
Not selecting Abid Ali for the T20 matches squad was another proof of the failure of the chief selector, immaturity and lack of acumen of the new T20 captain, absolute oversight failure of the highly paid CEO PCB and total collapse of the command of the exalted office of the chairman PCB.

6.Asad Shafiq An automatic choice for selection in the Test squad.

7. Haris Sohail If non performance was the reason for dropping Sarfaraz Ahmad, then the inclusion of Haris Sohail (after his recent failures in T20 and Test matches) in the squad vs the SL team is not at all a prudent decision.
Here, Sarfaraz Ahmad fully deserves a second chance for selection as a batsman, in place of Haris Suhail, to prove his form in the larger format of the game.
Mind it, Haris Suhail was NOT and never a T2O material, where he was selected, without any understanding of the game, by the PCB’s selection committee wizards of cricket in Pakistan.

8. Imam ul Haq After his dismal performances in Australia, he never deserved a place in a squad of even 30 players. NOT selecting SAMI ASLAM in place of Imam ul Haq is a HUGE, unpardonable, deliberate and biased omission of PCB.
It also proves that if you are a talented cricketer in NAYA Pakistan of Imran Khan without any SIFARISH, never dream playing for Pakistan.
However, the biggest tragedy has been selecting Imam ul Haq, in the recent past T20 national squads.

9. Imran Khan He was recalled after a long absence for the Australian tour and is a shining example of the most competent chief selector’s poor judgement.
Patron in Chief of the PCB, must repeat must, intervene immediately to correct this grave selection blunder and replace him with Haris Rauf, who in the first place deserved selection for the Australian tour.
Actually, it’s a proven case of bias and conflict of interest for the reason that Aaqib Javed (Head Coach of the Lahore Qalandars who discovered this most talented 150 KMPH speedster) openly spoke over TV against giving two positions to Misbah ul Haq.
Now, the chief selector is not selecting the most talented fast bowler of Pakistan, who has offers to settle in South Africa and Australia and about whom Indian skipper Virat Kohli has spoken high words of praise, as if, this is not a national team, but his personal club team.
This deliberate selection omission needs orders of inquest from the highest level, to correct the wrong doing of the highest magnitude.

10. Kashif Bhatti There was hardly any justification for including an uncapped player who is in his 34th year. This imprudent investment or faulty selection is absolutely unjustified, considering that highly talented M. Nawaz and Omar Khan have been ignored.

11. Muhammad Abbas After his failure in Australia mainly due to his inability to bowl at an speed of 135 to 140 KMPH (mostly bowls at just ladies speed of 120 KMPH) there remains no justification for including him in the squad.
Now, this is again a very biased decision to include M Abbas at the expense of brilliant and most experienced Junaid Khan, who deserves to be immediately inducted in the squad, even if the whole selection committee needs to be fired.

12. Naseem Shah He is the youngest player in the squad at the age of 16+ years (DoB 15 February 2003) and including him in squad for the Australian series proved a wrong decision.
Now, again the mistake has been repeated by including him in the squad for the series against the Sri Lankan team, as Musa Khan, must be given further chances.
Strategically, a very wrong decision.

13. Shaheen Shah Afridi He proved in the Australian series that he was fast coming of age.
Right selection of a very deserving player.
He must work on improving his fielding, rather than providing entertainment, like a joker in the field.

14. Shan Masood He is also learning fast and working very hard on improving his game. Plus he is an asset as a fielder, as well.
Correct selection.

15. Yasir Shah Automatic choice as the ace spinner of Pakistan. Moreover, his century in a Test match must have given him tons of confidence to give strength of batting in the lower order.

16. Usman Shinwari He is a talented bowler and needs nurturing in a professional manner.
However, not selecting Tabish Khan is extremely unfair and murder of merit. His following First matches bowling stats are a big slap on the face of all those officials, who always claim selections in PCB are done on merit:

Matches 128. Wickets. 568
Best 8/32. Average. 23.94
Economy. 3.15. 4 Wickets. 28
5 Wickets 37. 10 Wickets. 7

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad