Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja slams Pakistan cricket fans and highlighted the different scales on which Pakistan and their arch-rivals India are measured.
Ramiz Raja Slams Pakistan Cricket Fans
The rivalries between India and Pakistan have never ever reduced a bit especially in cricket. The two sides first played in 1952, when Pakistan toured India. Test and, later, limited-overs series have been playing ever since, although a number of planned tours by both sides have been cancelled or aborted due to political factors.
No cricket was played between the two countries between 1962 and 1977 due to two major wars in 1965 and 1971 and the 1999 Kargil War and the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks have also interrupted cricketing ties between the two nations.
Usually, players from both teams routinely face intense pressure to win and are threatened by extreme reactions in defeat.
In recent times, India won and lost a match by 5 wickets against Pakistan in Asia Cup 2022. Earlier to this India lost a match by 10 wickets in their opening match of the ICC T20 world Cup 2021.
Over the past few assignments, though Pakistan plays decently, skipper Babar Azam and opening batter Mohammad Rizwan have been criticised by many for their ‘poor strike rates in the T20 format.
“Previously we used to falter at the very first hurdle. Yes we reached the final and yes we did not play well. But it’s okay to have a bad day. But there were others teams as well in the Asia Cup. I mean then India should then have been severely criticised for not reaching the final. But that is not what their fans and media do”.
Ramiz Raja drags Virat Kohli into this conversation by recalling his 71st-century moment. Though India was eliminated from the Asia Cup 2022 tournament, Indian fans never criticized the Indian cricket team and instead enjoyed Virat’s 71st century which he scored after nearly 1000 days.
“I’ll tell you, when Virat Kohli scored a century against Afghanistan, they forgot their entire Asia Cup. Will we ever do that? What we say is that Babar Azam scored a ton, but his strike rate was 135 while David Warner‘s was 147.3. So this is useless,” Ramiz said in a discussion on Samaa TV.
After a T20I home series defeat against England, Pakistan currently plays in New Zealand T20I tri-series while the Indian T20I squad under Rohit Sharma departs for Australia to get part in ICC T20 World Cup 2022.
