Former Pakistan captain and head coach, Waqar Younis, has lashed out at senior players for stretching out their careers despite being past their prime, that was one of the major reasons behind the team’s debacle in the just-concluded Cricket World Cup 2019 in England.

He also urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to not to make compromises on fitness and form to avoid debacles like Pakistan faced at the World Cup 2019 – where they failed to make it to the round-robin stage of the mega-event having won just 5 games in the showpiece event.

Without specifying any name, the 47-year-old further added that the senior players tried to linger on in their careers and the problem is that nobody told them to retire with grace.

In an interview with the Daily Jang newspaper, Waqar said: “Till the last moment, our World Cup squad was not final and clear. There is a big problem that senior players try to linger on in their careers and there is no one to tell them it is time for them to retire gracefully.”

He continued, “For the last so many years, we see the same thing. At the last moment, seniors are brought in as the authorities are scared to lose in a big tournament.”

On Pakistan’s World Cup show, Waqar noted: “The way we struggled to win against Afghanistan in the final over it should not be like that. Our biggest problem is we make compromises in selection on fitness issues, seniority, and other matters.”

After a disastrous World Cup 2019 campaign, Pakistan are planning a complete overhaul at the side, but Waqar doesn’t believe this is a right way to handle the things.

He added, “After every World Cup, we see the same script in our cricket with only the characters changed. But this is not the way to move forward we need to assess where we are going wrong. Every four years we do the same exercise change the captain, sack the coaches and shoot the chief selector and blame the domestic structure but this leads to nowhere and the same mistakes are repeated again.”

Waqar said five years back he had given a comprehensive plan to the Pakistan Cricket Board on how to take the game forward. He continued, “I told them no compromises on fitness, development of players who can play at the rate of 3 and a half and 4 runs per over and seniors being told to retire at the right time but nothing came off it.”

With PCB inviting fresh application for the role of head coach of the side, Waqar insisted that he had no ambitions to take up the top role again.

He signed off by saying, “There is a new set-up in the PCB and they have new ideas which is good but it is not necessary I can do something good for Pakistan cricket only being the head coach. I can do that in any position. If the PCB offers me something, I will definitely think over it.”

(With Daily Jang Inputs)