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Karachi, May 7 (PTI) The Pakistan team led by Shahid Afridi, which is on the brink of surrendering its World Twenty20 title in the West Indies, has come in for some scathing criticism from former players after its defeat to England in Barbados. Former Test captain Asif Iqbal lashed out at Afridi''s captaincy, holding him responsible for the team''s poor show.
"I am really disappointed because I was one of those people who had backed Afridi as captain. But in the matches played so far he has been below par as captain and player," he said.
"I felt that if given responsibility of captaincy, Afridi had the flair and skill to lead from the front but so far he has been a big disappointment," Asif said. The former captain said it appeared as if there was no direction in the Pakistan team in the way they had lost their matches to Australia and England.
"It has been a disappointing show so far and let us just hope they can turn things around but so far the signs are not good at all for the supporters," he said. Former captain Moin Khan said he didn''t see any game plan on part of the team management in any of the matches.
"We won against Bangladesh but we didn''t play like champions. Against Australia and England there was no sense of pride or direction in the team and Afridi has made mistakes as captain," he said.
Moin said he was concerned that Afridi and coach Waqar Younis had not shown any flair or confidence in the matches so far. "We are not playing like defending champions.
Our fielding is below par and we are lacking confidence and a clear gameplan. If we continue to play like this we cannot progress beyond the Super Eight stage," Moin added.
Another former captain, Aamir Sohail, said mistakes were being committed on the field and off it as well. "The selection is wrong.
I don''t understand why this insistence on playing Fawad Alam because he is a big striker of the ball. If at all they want to play him then he should be batting higher up the order.
"Against England on the Barbados pitch they should have played Mohammad Sami as he has pace and is doing well and they dropped him and brought in Mohammad Asif who is short on confidence," he said. .
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