Babur Azam’s attempt to reinvent the wheel Steve Waugh was leading a fledgling Australian team in the 1999 Cricket World Cup. His team was on the verge of being eliminated from the title race after losing to Pakistan and New Zealand in the first phase itself.
When Steve Waugh was asked about this performance in the press conference, he said that there is still a lot of cricket left in this tournament. And then Chairmanship saw the spectacle of his young team emerging as champions in the final, humiliatingly defeating a star-studded Pakistani team.
A cricketing mind like Steve Waugh is rare. Even in the most difficult situations, he did not let hope slip away and won the victory with his extraordinary intelligence and untouchable decisions.
Former South African captain Ali Baqer said that captains are born, captains cannot be made. If we look at the most successful captains in the history of cricket, it is true that many of the most successful players turned out to be the worst captains, while many average players also turned out to have excellent leadership skills.
Here, the PCB has once again gone in the direction of reinventing the wheel and has reinstated Babar Azam as captain, reversing its own decision taken four months ago. In such a case, the dilemma is simply that the mistake was made four months ago or is it being made now?
And what was the fault of Shaheen Afridi in this whole case, who was made the captain under long-term goals and was given an experimental squad and given a free hand to prepare the team for the World Cup at will?
Only one series was played under Shaheen’s leadership and that too was decided by the playing XI.
Now, during this time, the leadership of PCB changed, so the new chairman considered it inevitable to bring a new captain. So what is the guarantee that if Mohsin Naqvi resigns tomorrow due to the ‘burden’ of numerous national responsibilities, then the future chairman will also have the same confidence in Babar Azam’s leadership?
And if the PSL performance is being made as the basis here, how can it be ignored that where Shaheen Afridi failed due to lack of resources, Babar Azam, despite being at his best combination, was crucial. In the final match, why fail to defend a good collection?
There is no doubt that Babar Azam is one of the greatest batsmen of this decade, but it is also a fact that at the decisive moments of pressure matches, he loses the match due to fundamental errors of estimation.
If you take the recent ODI World Cup, not only common sense, data also kept shouting that Haris Rauf is not a new ball bowler but Babar Azam above using him in the first power play has balanced the match from the beginning. Keep spoiling.
Similarly, Shadab Khan had already lost his form before the Asia Cup, but despite the insistence of the Babar Azam Cricket Committee, Abrar Ahmed did not agree to include him in the 15-man squad.
After the burden of leadership was removed, further improvement and improvement in Babar’s batting form was evident, but what was in his head that he felt it necessary to accept this responsibility. In such a situation, there is also a doubt that when Imad Wasim and Muhammad Amir, who took their leadership on TV in the World Cup, will be a part of the dressing room, what standards will the atmosphere of mutual adaptation set?
And even if PCB had any problem with Shaheen’s leadership, then was there no one else suitable for leadership except Babar Azam?
Had it not been for the puzzling media trends and the ‘journalistic’ influence of certain lobbies, the decision had been made on purely cricketing grounds, there would have been no better candidate to lead the team than Mohammad Rizwan, who has repeatedly demonstrated his leadership skills, cricketing acumen. And they have given evidence of being mentally present under pressure.
But what to do, even the PCB chiefs, who were dropped by parachute, need the unconditional support of one or the other faction of the media to prove their identity, and Muhammad Rizwan is neither approved by Karachi’s “journalism”. And neither Lahore, so what is the harm in reinventing the wheel from Babur Azam?
Speculation on media and social media
Speculations about the change of captaincy of the Pakistan national team have been going on for a week. There was talk in the media that the board wants to make Babar the captain of the T20 format but he wants to be the captain of all three formats. However, Babar himself did not respond to these reports.
Former Chief Selector Haroon Rasheed said in an interview given to Sama TV that ‘all the blame for the defeat is put on the captain. At a time when the World Cup is on the horizon, it is not right to change the captaincy.
He further said, ‘You made Shaheen Afridi the captain, so it meant that that decision was wrong? If you are changing the captain after one series, it will not send good signals to the team.
Former Test cricketer Tanveer Ahmed asked in his vlog a few days ago while commenting on this topic that under the captaincy of Babar Azam, Pakistan reached the finals and semi-finals of important tournaments, so he did not understand what was happening under the captaincy of Babar Azam. It was evil.
He further questioned whether it would be right if Shaheen was removed. He was of the opinion that Shaheen should have been allowed to continue as captain till the World Cup.
Tanveer Ahmed criticized the board and said that PCB has to take strong decisions. “The cricket board itself does not know how many days they have come, they come and ruin Pakistan cricket and leave.”
In a program of Sama TV, former chief selector Mohammad Wasim also asked the question that why do we need to change captain and coach so soon? First you took a decision, now unfortunately it has come again.
PCB mishandled captain’s case
On the appointment of Babar Azam as captain, social media users made the topic a top trend. While Babar’s fans have welcomed this decision, some people have also criticized this decision.
Salim Khaliq, while posting on X, raised the question that ‘will the national team be able to stay together?
He wrote, “The PCB mishandled the captain’s issue badly. If there was a change, the chairman and selectors would have called Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi for a meeting and taken the decision in confidence.”
User Imran Siddique also criticized the appointment on X and wrote that it is an abuse, no captain deserves to be removed after one series. Babar Azam may not have taken the right decision this time, which may affect the team as well.
Imran further said that Babar Azam should not have accepted this offer. “There will be more pressure on them now and they will be expected to perform at their best.”
