India and Pakistan are the two cricket-crazy countries and the amount of passion they have is unparalleled. Cricketers are praised when they perform well and when things go wrong, players face a lot of criticism. Ramiz Raja, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman has disclosed that the Pakistan skipper Babar Azam frequently tells him about the criticism they have to tackle.
Raja said, “The fans have ownership. This is as big as a product as any of our great institutions. They unite Pakistan, bring a smile on the fans' faces. Everyone is emotionally involved in this team,” said Ramiz to Samaa TV. Babar Azam often tells me ‘dekhiye hamaara kitna criticism hota hai’. I say to him, ‘be happy that cricket isn’t like any other sport in Pakistan where people don't care about them'. When people are engaged, they will form opinions. As long as they are constructive, no one has a problem”.
Pakistan suffered a lot of criticism just before the T20 World Cup, but Raja supported the team and requested fas to recognize the achievement as Pakistan outplayed India in the 2021 T20 World Cup.
“Their achievement is nothing short of a miracle. I never saw Pakistan beating India (in World Cup), now they have done it. But then, people say, ‘ok, this has happened. Let's move on'. You should pause a little and recognize their achievements. We have defeated a billion-dollar cricket industry. It isn't easy,” Ramiz said.
“This team has a wonderful temperament. There are issues in the middle order and we tend to freeze and drop catches in big games. But these aren't things where you can work upon. Everything is possible,” he further added.
Pakistan Squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Usman Qadir.
Standby Players: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani.