Shahid Afridi defends himself for his ‘lack of talent’ statement

Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi reckons the statement that he had made about lack of cricketing talent in the country was not taken in the right sense as he didn’t mean raw talent as people thought. Afridi clarified what he said was more about the lack of facilities in Pakistan to nurture those talents.

He feels that a few decades back, there were plenty of players in the Pakistani domestic circuit who were as good as those playing for the national team and that always kept them on the toes. But that’s not the case anymore. There is no pressure on the international cricketers anymore as there are not many in the domestic circuit who can take their place in the national side.

“What I meant to say was that if you were to go back in time a few years ago, it was extremely difficult to keep your place in the side due to the pressure of fresh talent wanting to take your place. Nowadays this pressure has been reduced since we can barely see two to three players coming through the ranks to challenge the players in the national team,” Afridi was quoted saying by PakPassion.

Lack of facilities

Afridi blames the lack of facilities for this situation as he reckons the domestic players are just not being nurtured properly. According to the veteran, the old times were different when the game was more about raw talent than anything else. The fitness didn’t hold as much importance as it does today, but the pace and the demands of the game have changed completely.

The game is now as much about fitness as raw talent and it has different demands than it had in the past. As long as the domestic players of Pakistan don’t get proper facilities, they just can’t get themselves in the right physical and mental shape to be able to fulfil those demands of the modern game.

“We are no longer in the old days where young players could be developed without needing such facilities. The demands of the modern day game have changed dramatically,” remarked Afridi.

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