“MS Dhoni still playing IPL, are they mad?”: Ex-PAK cricketer slams board

Pakistan cricket team had a disappointing end to the Asia Cup where they lost to Sri Lanka in the final of the tournament.

The Babar Azam-led team did well to come this far but fell 23 runs short of the target and as a result, Sri Lanka lifted the trophy.

After the Asia Cup, Pakistan are currently playing England in a seven-match T20I series at their home ground. However, Pakistan have already announced the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. However, the squad doesn’t include veteran cricketer Shoaib Malik.

Former Pakistan cricketer Kamran Akmal has slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board for not considering Shoaib Malik for the T20 World Cup. He said that the selectors are partial while picking up the squad.

“I have been talking for the last four to five years about liking and disliking in the team. The same thing is happening in domestic cricket. This will damage Pakistan cricket as these things are coming out and have now become obvious. When we used to play, this culture was not there. Has anyone talked about these things during our time compared to today, where players are saying openly? The concerned individuals used to form good teams,” Kamran told Cricket Pakistan.

He added that the board has thrown out selectors who took the team genuinely and had appointed their friends.

“The best way is to dig out performance. We can’t say only the captain is doing it. PCB Chairman must start from High-Performance camp where best coaches are thrown out and friends are being appointed,” he added.

The former wicketkeeper further said that the PCB chairman Ramiz Raja should make sure that seniors players must become a part of the domestic teams.

“Ramiz Raja must know the value of a cricketer is whether he is part of an international team or not. We can see in National T20 Cup too, the ones who have scored 5000 runs are in the second XI. Can’t he ask Nadeem Khan, Mohammad Wasim and selectors what they have done to the domestic sides? If players can’t make their way into the national side, should they also not play domestic?” he asked.

“MS Dhoni is still playing IPL”

He also added that legendary players like Cook and Dhoni are still playing cricket.

“Alastair Cook is still playing domestic despite retiring in 2018, MS Dhoni is still playing IPL, are they mad? But here they start chirping about age,” he added.

Coming to the series against England, Pakistan claimed victory in the fourth T20I by three runs on Sunday, as the series is now levelled at 2-2.