"You will never develop good cricketers if the culture of favoritism isn’t eradicated" - Sami Aslam talks about Pakistan cricket

Former cricketer Sami Aslam spoke at length about the favoritism culture that existed in Pakistan cricket before he shifted to the United States.

In an interview with Pak Passion on Saturday (May 8), Aslam pointed out that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) selection committee now believes in giving players more opportunities to prove themselves. But it was not the same when he was a part of the squad.

Back in his time, the 'favorites' could earn a place in the team even after failing for 20 matches, while others would lose their spot after failing once, according to Aslam.

"The biggest problem is that the people they should be backing and giving opportunities to are not allowed to settle and after a couple of low scores they were dropped. Now the selectors speak about giving players proper opportunities, well that wasn’t the case in the past when they would side-line any decent opening batsman if he had two low scores. You will never develop good cricketers if the culture of favouritism isn’t eradicated," said Sami Aslam.

Sami Aslam "If I was picked, I’d play a couple of matches & then get dropped. I was even dropped after having performed well in tough conditions. There were players who would flop in 10 matches & still get picked, but if I failed even a couple of times, I’d be left out" #Cricket

— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) May 8, 2021

Sami Aslam played 13 Tests for Pakistan, scoring 758 runs at an average of 31.58. He recorded seven fifties in red-ball cricket, with his highest score being 91.

The opening batsman made his Test debut in 2015 and was dropped after the Test against Sri Lanka in October 2017.

"I asked a lot of questions about why I wasn’t being picked" - Sami Aslam

Sami Aslam has 14 first-class hundreds to his name

After losing his place in the Test team, Sami Aslam returned to domestic cricket and performed well. Surprisingly, Aslam lost his position in his domestic team as well. Aslam claimed that when he tried to contact the selectors, he never received proper answers.

"I spoke to so many people. I asked a lot of questions about why I wasn’t being picked, why I was being treated in this way, but nobody had any answers. Nobody would take any responsibility and they would blame somebody else. Whereas some players are living-off one innings, I performed regularly but still couldn’t get picked even in domestic cricket," Sami Aslam added.

Sami Aslam "There's a 3-year eligibility & I will qualify to play for America in November 2023. I've not even 1% regret. I am really happy after being depressed in Pakistan for 2 years. I was in a bad place due to coaches & events in Pakistan & the way they treated me" #Cricket

— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) May 8, 2021

Sami Aslam has now moved to the USA, where he will be eligible to play for the American national team in November 2023. It will be interesting to see how he performs for the USA team.