Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said he is not going to blame head coach Misbah-ul Haq for the team’s recent poor run in international cricket, rather, slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for doing politics and blamed the board for the team’s recent struggle.
The former wicketkeeper further questioned the PCB’s decision to remove Sarfaraz Ahmed and Mickey Arthur as skipper and head coach of the Pakistan team respectively after the World Cup 2019, saying it was a big mistake made by the board due to politics, as the team was doing well under the two.
Arthur was removed as the head coach by the PCB one month after Pakistan failed to reach the 2019 World Cup semi-finals, while Sarfaraz was removed from captaincy after they suffered a whitewash against a weak Sri Lankan side in a T20I series in October-November 2019.
Later, Misbah was appointed head coach and chief selector of the side, while Babar Azam was named Pakistan captain in all three formats of the game and Latif was critical of PCB for the changes they made after the national team suffered a humiliating whitewash in the ODI series at the hands of second-string England team.
Latif said on the YouTube Cricket Baaz channel: “Why was Mickey Arthur removed...what was the reason for his sacking? The team had done well under him and it was progressing well. Check the records and you can see but he was removed because of politics.”
He added, “I don't blame Misbah-ul Haq, perhaps he didn't want to be a head coach. He was young and inexperienced as a coach so why appoint him? It is the PCB to be blamed for what has happened.”
On the ODI series loss to England earlier this week, the former skipper noted, “Today we have lost to a second-string England team badly in the One-Day series which means that our cricket is not good enough to even beat England's bench strength.”
However, Latif hopes that Pakistan would be able to bounce back in the three-match T20I series against England, starting on Friday (July 16) at Trent Bridge.
He signed off by saying, “Let's just hope they can bounce back because we can't afford any more setbacks.”
(With PTI Inputs)
