Shahid Afridi feels Pakistan is not producing quality cricketers
Former Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afridi feels that the country is not producing fine cricketers as there is more focus on quantity and not quality. Afridi, who stepped down from captaincy earlier this year, said that handing over international caps to a lot of cricketers has resulted in this.
Talking to a private news channel, Afridi said, “Instead of going after quantity, we should concentrate on quality to meet international standards. Granting of caps to such a large number of cricketers has run counter to the efforts to produce quality players."
Afridi had resigned from captaincy following Pakistan's pitiable show in the World T20 and the current squad has been heavily criticised for their failure to perform as a team.
Easier to play for Pakistan these days
"We can see a lot of first class cricketers whereas in our times playing in first-class cricket was more difficult than to play for Pakistan. Now our team is not the one it used to be at the time of players like Imran Khan. Back then there were several stars but now we just see two to three stars,” he added.
He said that the selectors have to look for the places in the country from where they used to get a lot of such players in the past, adding that development has to take place from the grassroots level. The 36-year-old also said that it had always been a dream for him to represent his country on the international platform and that his best moment was when Pakistan lifted the 2009 T20 World Cup.
Afridi said that he had no plans to join politics or take up coaching as his career. “My aim is to set up as many academies for the youngsters as possible,” he said.
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He aslo felt very happy that the Pakistan team got a huge support in India during the World T20. On being asked about his “more loved in India than Pakistan” statement, Afridi said that it was unnecessarily blown out of proportion by a few ex-players.
Recently, former Pakistan coach Waqar Younis had slammed Afridi, blaming him for the team's poor run in the series against England, New Zealand, Asia Cup and World T20. "On several occasions I had made it clear that Shahid Afridi was not performing with bat, ball or captaincy but I was not listened to," said the legendary bowler.
However, the newly appointed coach Mickey Arthur had praised Afridi saying that he has been a fantastic player and that a player of this class cannot be easily discarded.