Former spinner Saeed Ajmal has called out the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and its key decision makers amid the ongoing crisis in country’s cricket.
After losing the first two Tests on the tour of England, the PCB took the unprecedented step of sending seven players home, including senior names like Mohammad Rizwan, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha.
Red-ball head coach Sarfaraz Ahmed and bowling coach Umar Gul were also relieved of their duties, with Mike Hesson-led white-ball coaching staff asked to take over the backroom responsibilities for the rest of the England tour.
Seven players, including five uncapped, have been added to the squad ahead of the third and final Test at Edgbaston starting September 9.
The sweeping mid-tour overhaul has triggered immense backlash, but PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi recently urged the critics to stop demotivating them. However, Ajmal doesn’t think Naqvi was serious with his message.
“The board itself has demotivated the players more than anyone else. The board is not letting any player stand. There are players who have done well, who have also been dropped. There are players who have been humiliated by the PCB,” Ajmal said while speaking on Samaa TV.
Ajmal explicitly pointed fingers at chief selector Aaqib Javed and Hesson, asserting that the duo is controlling everything behind the scenes and dictating the board's heavy-handed actions.
“Aaqib Javed and Mike Hesson (who has been asked to take over the Test team for the third Test) are a team. These two are controlling everything and are responsible for this whole mess. The whole issue is about egos. Our team has gone back 10 years. We have not planned for the future,” he added.
Earlier, Naqvi tried to convey that the sacking of the players was a purely performance-based decision, not a personal vendetta, and every move was made with good intentions to benefit the team.
“Every match of a series is important for us, and we are not left with any option if a player is not performing but to look for his replacement. The purpose behind these changes is not to axe players from contention, but just to replace them. Consider [Salman] Agha, who is a very good player, but he could not click because of some reasons. He was spoken to about it,” Naqvi had said in an interview with Geo Network.
