"These incidents constantly haunt you" - Rameez Raja on Hasan Ali's dropped catch in T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final
Moments of misery as Hasan Ali's dropped catch in the 2021 T20 World Cup semi-final "constantly haunt you", believes Ramiz Raja. Raja is currently the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Speaking to reporters outside an event, Raja said that Hasan Ali should double his efforts when it comes to fielding from now on. Raja feels it is the only way to move past such an episode. He also advised the pacer to learn from his mistake but not dwell too long on it.
"These kinds of incidents constantly haunt you and it takes time to recover from such episodes or nightmares. If I would have been in his place, I would have liked to double my fielding and not think much about this," Rameez Raja said.
He went on to add:
"One learns from their mistakes and he indeed did commit a mistake, but even I have dropped a lot of catches. It’s not the end of the world. The good thing is there was a positive reaction created on social media."
Hasan Ali dropped Matthew Wade in the 19th over of the semi-final against Australia. In the same over, Wade went on to hit Shaheen Afridi for three consecutive sixes to finish the match for the eventual champions.
Leadership was good, they expressed themselves - Rameez Raja on Pakistan's performance in T20 World Cup
The PCB chairman hailed Pakistan's performance in the T20 World Cup and said that there was good leadership on display and that the players played as a team.
"Honestly, the leadership was really good. And till now, cricket is among the few games where leadership matters. They expressed themselves and owned the team and the team players gave a very good response," Raja said.
A former player himself, Raja said that the spirit in the team was created by their hard work. He said that he does talk to them sometimes to help give them clarity, but does so as a former player and not as the chairman of the board.
"It is their own hard work. I surely talk with them, being an ex-cricketer to give them clarity and when I talk to them, I talk as a cricketer and not as a chairman. So, I hope they understand the discussions on cricket and how important it is to play together," Rameez Raja said.
Pakistan dominated the Super 12 stages, winning all five of their matches, but lost to Australia in the T20 World Cup semi-final.