Pakistani players are mentally disturbed, says Shoaib Akthar

Shoaib Akhtar

Pakistan’s former fast bowler Shoaib Akthar has described most of the members in the national team as “mentally disturbed”. The former speedster hasn’t been in good terms with the PCB since his retirement, and this statement might further prove to be the nail in the coffin.

“Most of the players do not perform on the field, why? Because they’re mentally disturbed. They have a lot fears; take those fears away, that is the coach’s job, it is not to teach the game,” the former speedster said.

Akthar, popularly known as Rawalpindi Express, mentioned that Pakistan cricket is presently going through its “darkest era”.

He felt Pakistan should immediately look for a new coach, who can “unite the players in the dressing room”.

“I think this is the darkest era of our cricket and I think if we need to take positives from the Champions Trophy we should learn from South Africa who survived isolation in the apartheid era and have emerged as a top team in the world.

“Pakistan needs to learn from them because we are also in a similar position as there is no international team coming to Pakistan since 2009. But we are still in a better position than them in the sense that we are still playing our matches at neutral venues,” he followed.

When asked whether skipper Misbah-ul-Haq needs to be held responsible for his team’s poor run of form, he defended the skipper saying he isn’t the right person to be blamed as no one is batting consistently in the batting line-up barring him.

“He has no choice but to adopt a conservative and safety-first approach due to the poor performance of his colleagues,” he added.

However, Akthar, who was one of the most feared fast bowlers in his heyday, thinks poor coaching is the only reason why Pakistani batsmen have come up with some poor shows in the recent past.

Akhtar further added, “Pakistan has always been able to produce some of the world’s greatest players. The greatest, however, have not coached the under-19 and the under-16 teams where they can be matured as a batsman. By those ages you should have maturity as a batsman. The best age is 15, if you tell them how to play the game and rotate the strike, that’s where real coaching comes into play. I would say that there is a huge gap in that area.”

On being asked who would be the suitable person to take over as Pakistan’s coach in these difficult circumstances, he said, “Pakistan should go for Tom Moody, he is the only man who can bring the match-winning attitude into the team. He is fantastic, rugged, brilliant manager, brilliant motivator and accommodator and he knows how to handle guys.”

He wasn’t particularly happy with Pakistan’s current wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal, who has been under fire for dropping some easy catches and also for his poor batting form.

He said, “Kamran should be dropped for the match (against India) and the management must play an extra batsman who can also keep. I think Asad Shafiq should be given a chance. Everyone knows the sort of keeping that Kamran Akmal does. I think I can also keep like this. The unfortunate part is that for the last 10 years Pakistan has been looking for a good keeper who can also bat well,”

Source – TOI