Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Officials from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday held a press conference to address the team’s performance in the T20 World Cup, where India national cricket team went on to win the title. During the press conference, Pakistan selector Aaqib Javed spoke about the team’s results and also referred to the long-standing record against India in ODI World Cups.Speaking alongside former Pakistan players Misbah-ul-Haq, Sarfaraz Ahmed and Asad Shafiq, Javed said Pakistan should not keep using the India record as an excuse.
“Not being able to beat India in the World Cup is not an excuse, the result there is 8–0, and even the world’s best captains have played from 1975 to 2026, so set that aside. In the Super 8 stage, one match was washed out due to rain, and we lost one match nothing else happened,” he said.“Against Sri Lanka, winning by that margin wasn’t achievable. We lost only one match. We were eliminated only on net run rate. Making it such a huge issue is too much. It’s a big issue, but not so big that our cricket is destroyed or that we can’t compete anywhere in the world.”The discussion also brought back earlier controversy involving Pakistan all-rounder Shadab Khan. During the tournament, Shadab had strongly responded to criticism from former players after Pakistan’s defeat to India in Colombo. When asked about remarks from ex-cricketers such as Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Yousuf, he pointed out that their teams had never beaten India in World Cups, unlike Pakistan’s 2021 T20 World Cup victory over India. Shadab was part of the 2021 side.“Former cricketers have their own opinions. They (former players) were legends, but even they could not achieve what we have. We have beaten India in a World Cup,” he added.The message also carried nothing but a lack of respect for past players, including Shadab’s father-in-law Saqlain Mushtaq.Saqlain himself expressed disappointment with the remarks. “Those were unwanted comments, and most of the players had played with me. In fact, I am also one of them who had not won an ICC event, but we had won several big matches for Pakistan, Tests and ODIs,” Saqlain said on a Pakistani show.
