Former Australia batsman Usman Khawaja has mocked and ridiculed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for its widely-reported decision to penalise its entire squad for underperforming in the T20 World Cup. Although the PCB has not confirmed this, earlier this week, Pakistani media outlets started reporting that the cricket board will penalise every member of its T20 World Cup squad — 50 lakh (Pakistani rupees) for each player to be precise. As per them, the decision had been reached much before, after their loss to archrivals India on February 15.
Khawaja, who retired last year after the Ashes and has his roots in Pakistan, made a short video in which he couldn’t help laughing. It was clear he could not believe that such a thing could happen.
“I just heard that the Pakistani players got fined after the T20 World Cup. I mean, I don’t believe it at first, but it’s on Cricinfo. It must be true. It’s absolutely amazing that the PCB could think that this is a good idea. Sorry, I’m laughing because I can’t, I can’t believe it. In what high performance team in the entire world, let alone cricket, are players getting fined when they lose cricket games?” the Pakistan-born player asked.
Pakistan lost two games in the entire tournament, all to top teams though, first against India in the group stages and then against England in the Super 8s. They also registered close wins against minnows Netherlands and co-hosts Sri Lanka. They survived just by the skin of their teeth. Against Sri Lanka in their last Super 8 game, if they had won by a desired margin, they could have still reached the semis. After scoring 212, they needed to restrict the Lankans to 147 or less but they couldn’t do so.
Khawaja really feels for ‘poor Pakistani cricketers’
Khawaja continued in his mocking tone: “They’re not trying to lose cricket games, and how do you even think that that makes them perform better next time? All it does is put more pressure and more stress onto the players. I mean, they’re under enough pressure. They, Pak players, the whole country is watching them. I mean, even the selection in the past has put them under pressure as players. And now on top of that, you are fining them.
“Yes, it’s the absolute shameful. I really feel for the Pakistani players. Poor Pakistani players. I’m lost for words, honestly. That’s why I made this video. I can’t believe it. Every time I think Pakistan cricket is not gonna surprise me anymore, they surprise me. It’s like a drama series. I can’t wait for the next episode.”
Pakistan cricket has indeed become the butt of all jokes. A Pakistani player has also been accused of behaving inappropriately with a female hotel staff member in Kandy before their game against Sri Lanka. Apart from that, Babar Azam and Saim Ayub have been dropped for their upcoming three-ODI tour of Bangladesh. Many have questioned this decision with the argument that their performance was unsatisfactory in T20Is, so why they have been dropped from the ODI set-up, in a format where they have done relatively better in recent months.
