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'Players who Babar wanted to pick, weren't selected': Shoaib Malik slams Pakistan Cricket Board

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: May 16, 2021, 11:27 AM IST
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Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik (C). Photograph:(AFP)

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Shoaib Malik has also slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and said that players are selected on the basis of contact and not their skills. 

Pakistan Cricket Board's selection policies have been criticised by several former cricketers in the past. Now, Shoaib Malik has also slammed the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and said that players are selected on the basis of contact and not their skills. 

"We have a system of liking and disliking in our cricket, which is something that is present in the rest of the world as well but seems to be a bit more in our culture. The day things change in our cricket system where more importance is given to skills rather than who a person knows, only then will things improve," Malik was quoted as saying by veteran Pakistan journalist Saj Sadiq in a series of tweets.

"In the recent squad there were many players who Babar wanted to pick, but they weren't selected. Everyone has their opinions but the final decision on selection should be that of the captain because it's he who will fight it out on the ground he with his team", he had added.

"Whatever is in my fate is in the hands of the Almighty and not in any person's control. I will have no regrets if I am not asked to play again, but I would have felt more regret if I had not spoken up on behalf of my fellow cricketers," Malik further said.

"I'm not against Misbah, he was an excellent cricketer and a good human and I respect him a lot. But I feel Misbah needed more time and he should have been asked to coach at the domestic level and then maybe brought in as Pakistan coach.

"I played under many captains who would make their own bold decisions, these were guys like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq & Shahid Afridi. To be a captain & just please others will not work - they will never be happy & you won't last as captain," he signed off.