Pakistan needs to move on from scapegoat culture: National selector Aaqib Javed

Pakistan's national selector Aaqib Javed said that whenever the Men in Green fare badly in an ICC event, there is a demand for a complete overhaul to sort things out. The ex-cricketer said that this needs to stop for the betterment of the team.

The last four years have been very difficult for Pakistan. They reached the T20 World Cup final in 2022. However, in the ODI World Cup in 2023, T20 World Cups in 2024 and 2026, and the Champions Trophy in 20025, the Asian giants have been ousted in the group stage.

Not only have the team's performances been abysmal, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has also not been able to persist with a consistent team management group. Instead, they have hired and fired some of the top coaches in the world, including Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie. Amid all the shuffling, it is Aaqib Javed who has managed to hold on to his position.

However, after the latest debacle in the recently concluded T20 World Cup, Javed is proactively looking for solutions to start a resurgence. Amid the scrutiny, the 53-year-old mentioned that the PCB needs to ditch their scapegoat approach.

"In our setup, whenever a team loses, there is always a demand to punish someone," Aaqib Javed said in a press conference in Lahore on Saturday, March 14.

"It happened at the previous World Cup, then the Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup. Whenever we lose, we go over the top, demanding the whole team, coach or selectors be changed. The way we change coaches and selectors never happens anywhere else in world cricket. We'll have to move past scapegoating people," he added.

Javed admitted that Pakistan's performance in the Champions Trophy last year was a "disaster". However, he said that the team had played some good cricket heading into the marquee event.

"I admit that Champions Trophy was a disaster. Until then, the team's performance was going well. Here, we beat South Africa, Sri Lanka and Australia, which suggested that we were going to do well in the T20 World Cup. Did you not have expectations that this team would do well? I certainly did," Javed said.

Pakistan Cricket has not been destroyed: Javed

Javed opined that Pakistan were unfortunate not to progress to the semifinals of the T20 World Cup. Their Super 8 game against New Zealand was washed out and a loss to England made things difficult for them. They needed to win by a huge margin against Sri Lanka, which they failed to do. However, Javed refused to admit that cricket in the country has been destroyed.

"We qualified for the second round and we lost only one game against England. Did anything else happen? It was not possible to win by that margin against Sri Lanka, which we required. We lost just one game and only missed out due to net run rate. It's not such a big issue to say our cricket has been destroyed," Javed said.