CRICKET
‘The lowest point in our international history’ - Ramiz
F
ormer Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has described
the national team as a "rudderless ship" after they
were whitewashed 0-3 in the ODI series and beaten convicingly in the only T20I on their ongoing tour of Bangladesh. Speaking to Boom, Ramiz said he was disappointed by the "lack of direction" and the lack of "fresh ideas"
from the PCB."They have gone to the players who have
put a mute button on Pakistan cricket for a long time,"
Ramiz said. "There's no freshness of ideas or direction.
It's the same old logic to keep wickets in hand and then
go hard in the last 10 overs. This is a throwback to the
80's and 90's stuff. I was hoping that the situation would
improve but there is hardly any new direction given by
the new coaching staff."Ramiz, who is currently in India
as a commentator for the IPL, believes Pakistan need
to urgently set up a T20 league on similar lines as that
"environment will help the players understand the game
better.""That (a T20 league) will really help them to concentrate on the game and play the game in the way that
it should be played," he said. "I hope the Pakistan Cricket
Board works on it and somehow makes it happen. If not
in Pakistan, then in the middle east. It's not about money, it's about the environment that Pakistan cricket so
badly needs to share that experience and to learn from
the greats of the game."Describing the series in Bangladesh as "embarrassing" and the "lowest point in our
international history", Ramiz said the outcome was the
culmination "of a badly thought out strategy." According
to him, Pakistan are no longer producing the same assembly line of talent as they did in the past, and even the
players coming through are not being "used properly" by
the team management."I'm deeply concerned because I
was hoping that some of the younger players would step
up but they weren't good enough," Ramiz said. "Timid is
the right word, boxed in mentality, which is not expanding your range in T20 or 50-overs cricket. It's the way
they're brought up."They have technical and mental issues. They don't know how to construct a knock; those
who know it don't have the technical know-how. Some
of them are suppressed by the environment because
they are not sure whether they'll play the next game.
The overall strategy needs to improve. The coaching
staff has to come to their rescue because gone are the
days when Pakistan would have a well rounded and
talented side."The lone bright spark for Pakistan in the
one-day series was newly appointed captain Azhar Ali,
who scored a hundred and a fifty in his three innings to
emerge as the team's top-run getter. While complimenting Azhar on his solid start, Ramiz, who had advocated
Wahab Riaz for the captaincy after Pakistan's World
Cup exit, believes the door should be kept open on that
option."I believe that Pakistan cricket needs a tonic of
aggression," Ramiz insisted. "What I saw of Wahab Riaz
convinced me that he has got the potential and arsenal
to give Pakistan that all important positive direction. He
could lead them into action because against Australia
and throughout the World Cup he was the go-to guy.
He would make things happen and that is the kind of
individual I was hoping Pakistan would pin its hopes
on. He was not even made the vice captain which is
strange."Ramiz was also not surprised by the ineffectiveness of Saeed Ajmal, who returned to the Pakistan
squad after remodeling his action. Ajmal, who missed
the World Cup, was able to pick up just one wicket in
the first two one-dayers and went wicketless in the T20I.
Ramiz believes it will be difficult for Ajmal be equally
threatening as he felt his doosra has been neutralised
by the new action."Pakistan will be severely hit as both
Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez were extremely good
with the straighter ball which now they can't bowl," he
said. "I fear the worst for Saeed Ajmal. He's not pausing
and firing them in. It's not spinning for him. He is clearly
a bit uneasy and uncomfortable, lacks confidence. It will
be difficult for him to bowl at the level he was bowling for
Pakistan a year back."The teams now face off in a twoTest series starting on April 28 in Khulna where Misbahul-Haq will return as captain alongside senior batsman
Younis Khan to shore up the middle order. Ramiz, however, expects Bangladesh to have a "huge advantage"
going into the series as Pakistan are "hurt mentally and
technically.""I think Bangladesh should be relentless as
this a golden chance for the H