Karachi: Former Pakistan all-rounder, Shahid Afridi has opened up about his thoughts on the current state of the Pakistani team. He feels that it has become extremely easy for youngsters to get into the national team. Afridi feels that a player must be nurtured before giving him a chance in the national team. He thinks giving players easy breaks in the national team is the reason for Pakistan's inconsistency.
“It has become so easy to play for the national team whereas in the past playing for the Pakistan team was the ultimate for any professional cricketer,” Afridi said during a function.
“Why have we made it so really easy for players to represent their country. I am sad to see that a player gives one or two good performances in domestic cricket or the PSL and he is in the national team," he continued.
Afridi stressed the need to play more domestic cricket and felt that international cricket was more about mental strength than talent. “What is this? You should make your cricketers play domestic cricket. We must now judge the difference between just talent and mental strength of a player,” Afridi added.
The 44-year old all-rounder felt that players should not be dropped based on one or two bad performances. He was, perhaps, talking about how Mohammed Amir was dropped from the team.
“If you give a chance to a player and he doesn’t perform, he should be sent back into domestic cricket. Don’t make playing for Pakistan so easy. Players must know the value of international cricket. I am totally against players coming into the side on just one or two performance