Former Pakistan cricketer and 1992 World Cup winner Aaqib Javed recalled how the Men in Green were treated back in the day, saying that he almost got lynched after returning home from the Wills World Cup 1996.
Pakistan, under the captaincy of Wasim Akram, managed to reach the quarter-finals of the 1996 World Cup, which was played in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
However, Akram didn’t play in the knockout match in Bengaluru against India as Aamer Sohail captained the side. India defeated Pakistan soundly in the quarter-final match, which was also the final appearance of Javed Miandad in international cricket.
Javed, who was part of the 1996 World Cup Pakistan squad, said that he was almost lynched after returning from India and that the fans tried to burn his house down.
He further added that now no one can even criticize the Pakistan team, despite Babar Azam and co. failing to reach the semis of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 in India.
“Now, we can’t even criticize this team after their poor display in the World Cup. They are lucky. After the 1996 World Cup what happened to me was a horrible experience. We were scared when we left India,” Aaqib Javed said on Suno News.
“At the airport, even security people were not there to help us out. We were not sure how we would reach home. Stones were pelted at my house, mob tried to burn my house down. I was hit with eggs and tomatoes on the head,” recalled Javed.
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Aaqib, who has played 22 Tests and 163 ODIs for Pakistan said that the mob wanted to finish him, and had it not been for his cousin, he might have not lived.
“Our bus stopped. I stepped out of it and, I saw people running towards me. The bus driver started the bus. I was standing there with my bag and started running. Suddenly, a Jeep came, four people pushed me inside and I thought I was dead. Luckily, It was my cousin, who was in the police, he came there to rescue me,” said Javed.
“In comparison to us, no one has done anything to this team. People are saying we criticize a lot. It’s nothing. We create a false hope before every big tournament but deep down we know that this team will finish fifth or sixth. They have proved this in the past three World Cups,” he said.
Javed also slammed captain Babar Azam and said he should be sacked and replaced with Shaheen Shah Afridi, who has guided Lahore Qalandars to back-to-back Pakistan Super League (PSL) title.
“They are saying ‘Oh don’t say anything to Babar’. If he is a good captain, has he won anything at any level? You can’t make a captain. It’s either he is a captain or he is not. Virat Kohli was captain for so long, but has he won anything?
Rohit Sharma is a good captain because he has won five titles in the IPL. Kohli has done nothing in the IPL nor with the national team. The same is with Babar, he has not won a single trophy in PSL nor with the senior team.
Sarfaraz won the U-19 World Cup in 2006, and then the Champions League in 2017. he led Quetta to the tile in the PSL. Has Babar at any stage shown any glimpse of a good captain? Shaheen has won two titles in the PSL. We have picked the entire team from the PSL but not the captain. We must change the captain and Babar must realize has he done justice to the captaincy,” he said.
Pakistan’s next assignment will be a Test tour of Australia in December-January.
