Pakistan team mentor Matthew Hayden gave a speech in the dressing room after the Men in Green suffered a five-wicket defeat in the T20 World Cup 2022 final to concede the title to England at MCG on Sunday (November 13).
Defending the paltry total of 137, Pakistani bowlers tried their heart out to take the game deep but England rode on Ben Stokes’ unbeaten 52 off 49 balls to get over the finishing line with one over to spare.
After the undesirable outcome, the Pakistan camp looked broken but Hayden did his best to cheer them up.
"It's worth a round of applause how every game, in every net session, the players who did not get to play turned up. It's never easy and that's the hardest job in the world to do and I do hope that you boys feel proud of the achievements of this playing group. I just want to say thank you for sharing your dressing room with me, sharing your hearts, your minds, and your spirits also just putting in your 100 percent in this campaign," Hayden said in a video posted by PCB on Twitter.
"I just want to say on behalf of the support staff that we feel very privileged and honoured to be a part of that story. Take it back a month ago, when you all shared a meal at my house, I said that I was confident that you are going to lift the World Cup. Now that has not changed, nothing's changed, I am still confident that this group of young men can lift the World Cup," he added.
"And I am confident that, we have also some clarity on how to move forward from this tournament. How to celebrate some great performances and how to acknowledge some of the weaknesses that we have had in the last month," he further said.
Notably, Pakistan were in dire straits after suffering two back-to-back last-over defeats in the Super 12 round versus India and Zimbabwe. However, they showed great character and bounced back to register wins against Netherlands, South Africa, and Bangladesh.
Moreover, the result of some other games went in their favour and the Babar Azam-led side eventually made it to the semi-final, where they defeated New Zealand by seven wickets.
Hayden expects Babar and company to do special things in the next year’s ODI World Cup in India.
"Come the World Cup in India, again, we will be celebrating getting somewhere near the World Cup. It is amazing how far we have come in the tournament," he stated.
"I know that you are going to be hurting, I know, it does hurt, but the reality is that we are so close. Such an important part of these last parts has been sharing time together. We have talked as men about what the future looked like and bang bang bang, results happened," he consoled the players.
"So, guys, I am really proud of you. Thank you for sharing your inner sanctum with me and I hope that I have been able to share my heart and my story of cricket with you guys as well, and I am always honoured," Hayden concluded.
