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  • Babar Azam to be removed from captaincy, Geo sources say

    Babar Azam to be removed from captaincy, Geo sources say

    Babar Azam’s captaincy will end after the defeat in the ICC World Cup 2023 in India, Geo News has said.

    According to Geo sources, Test, ODI, and T20 captain Babar Azam will now play as a batsman and not captain. If Babar Azam resigns as captain, the board will accept it, but nonetheless, the board has decided to remove Babar Azam from the captaincy.

    According to Yahya Hussaini, Shan Masood is a strong candidate to become the Test captain on the tour of Australia, while Shaheen Afridi is a leading contender for T20 leadership in the tour of New Zealand. Shaheen Afridi will be the captain of Pakistan in the 2024 ICC World T20.

    It should be noted that in the ongoing Cricket World Cup in India, the Pakistan team could not make it to the semi-finals and lost five of their nine matches.

  • PCB considers names for replacement of foreign coaching staff

    PCB considers names for replacement of foreign coaching staff

    Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has started considering names for replacement of foreign coaching staff.

    According to sources, Director of Cricket Mickey Arthur, coach Grant Bradburn, and batting coach Andrew Potek are likely to leave their positions.

    PCB has agreed to have local coaches instead of foreign coaches, leading to a series of meetings between Chairman PCB Management Committee Zaka Ashraf and former captains.

    Morne Morkel, bowling coach of the Pakistan cricket team, resigned on Monday.

  • Abdul Razzaq’s misogynist statement during event slammed on social media

    Abdul Razzaq’s misogynist statement during event slammed on social media

    Former cricketer Abdul Razzaq is facing severe criticism after passing misogynistic and gross comments about Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai during a media interaction.

    When questioned about the team’s performance in the World Cup, Razzaq talked about former captain Younis Khan and his neeyat [intentions].

    “I took confidence from Younis Khan’s neeyat. I got the determination to do something, and thank God I delivered there,” he begun.

    Flanked on both sides by former fast bowler Umar Gul and former captain Shahid Afridi, Razzaq then spoke about the criticism on the team.

    “It is not our neeyat that something should be polished or players should be developed. If your thinking is that you should marry Aishwarya Rai and give birth to a pious child, that will never happen.”

    Both Gul and Afridi started clapping after he passed the comments.

    Allaying concerns about the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Razzaq used a shocking analogy to criticize their conduct. Abdul Razzaq said, “If you think that marrying Aishwarya Rai will produce a good and pious child, then it will never happen”.

    Notably, Shahid Afridi was seen laughing and clapping in response to Razzaq’s remarks instead of condemning or blocking them.

    The internet though is having none of it. Users were outraged and slammed Razzaq online:

  • Kapil Dev speaks up in Babar Azam’s support

    Kapil Dev speaks up in Babar Azam’s support

    Indian cricket legend Kapil Dev has spoken up against the criticism of Pakistan captain Babar Azam after the team failed to make it to the semi finals of the World Cup.

    Pakistani cricketers, including the captain, are being severely criticized by former players and social media users. Some former Pakistani players have also advised Babar to leave the captaincy so that he can focus on his batting.

    During a podcast, Kapil Dev said, “Because of the current performance of the team, people are taunting Babar Azam, criticizing him, but remember that this is the same player who brought Pakistan to the number one ranked team a month ago”.

    He said, “People are watching Babar today because he did not perform well but they forgot yesterday when he was performing. Don’t judge a player based on his current performance, see how he plays, how much passion and talent he has, a player can get out on the first ball, there is no batsman like that in the world who could not get out on the first ball”.

  • Shahid Afridi wants Babar Azam to lead team on Australia tour

    Shahid Afridi wants Babar Azam to lead team on Australia tour

    Former captain of the national cricket team Shahid Afridi has said that Babar Azam should lead the team on the tour of Australia scheduled to begin in December.

    Speaking at the event in Karachi, Shahid Afridi said “We have time to decide, I had a lot of hope from this team, we did not perform according to our skills. You need to work on grassroots cricket. Babar Azam should lead the tour of Australia, in big events you have to take the pressure, if you make so many mistakes then you can’t win.”

    Former captain and wicketkeeper Rashid Latif said that the country had focused on T20 cricket for a long time, playing fewer Tests and less first-class cricket.

    Rashid Latif said, “Our fast bowlers did not bowl well in the World Cup. If the spinners were good, the result could have been different. Not only the players but the management should also be questioned”.

  • Babar Azam returns home after World Cup disappointment

    Babar Azam returns home after World Cup disappointment

    After failing to qualify for the cricket World Cup semi-finals, Pakistan captain Babar Azam has returned to Lahore from Dubai via a private airline flight on Sunday. The team manager and other Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials accompanied him.

    On Babar’s arrival at Lahore Airport, fans raised ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. The squad that left Kolkata for Dubai on Sunday morning included captain Babar Azam, Iftikhar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, and others.

    A second group of 22 members of the team have also left for Dubai from Kolkata, including Shaheen Afridi, Imamul Haq, Salman Agha, Muhammad Nawaz, coaching staff and other players.

    Pakistan failed to make it to the semi-finals of the World Cup after a disappointing string of defeats, losing five out of nine matches of the group stage.

  • Pakistan cricket team bowling coach resigns as fallout of WC debacle continues

    Pakistan cricket team bowling coach resigns as fallout of WC debacle continues

    Pakistan’s cricket team’s bowling coach Morne Morkel has resigned on Monday, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed. The former Proteas bowler joined the Pakistan cricket team for a six-month contract in June this year, with his first assignment being the tour to Sri Lanka for a two-match test series.

    PCB will soon announce a replacement for Morkel. The next assignment will be the three-match test series against Australia starting from December 14, 2023 to January 7, 2024.

    The resignation has followed a dismal performance by the national team in the ongoing World Cup in India. Pakistan lost five out of a total of nine matches, failing to make it to the semi-finals. The bowling attack, missing spearhead Naseem Shah, has come under fire for its poor performance.

  • Social media loved Pakistani cricket show ‘The Pavilion’

    Social media loved Pakistani cricket show ‘The Pavilion’

    Although the Pakistan cricket team has not qualified for the World Cup semi-finals, former cricketers are still getting praise from the cricketing world in ‘The Pavilion’. Misbah-ul-Haq, Waseem Akram, Shoaib Malik, Moin Khan, and presenter Fakhar-e-Alam are getting praised on social media for their unique, off-the-cuff and candid analysis on the A Sports show.

    This show is a hit both in Pakistan and in India.

    Former Indian superstar Saurav Ganguly talked about the show, stating, “I watch all of them, Wasim, Moin, Shoaib and Misbah, I follow their show regularly.”

    Indian journalist Rajdeep Sardesai appreciated the show in a tweet, saying ‘Pakistan have had a pretty woeful World Cup but arguably the best cricket show on the World Cup has come from Pakistan tv: The Pavilion. No jingoism, no noise, just solid analysis and truth telling by former players. Wish our sports/news channels/experts would take a cue. This is a WORLD Cup, not a domestic tournament for Indian stars only. Sure we love Virat, Rohit and our team but let’s talk about the game and other players too also sometimes”.

    Two Indian websites, News18 and Livemint, also wrote about the show.

    Here are some reaction from social media:

  • Ramiz Raja lashes out at PCB after Pakistan departs from World Cup

    Ramiz Raja lashes out at PCB after Pakistan departs from World Cup

    Former cricketer Ramiz Raja has expressed anger at the bad performance of the Pakistan cricket team in the World Cup and at the selection committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

    Expressing anger, Ramiz Raja, a former head of PCB, said, “When you (your bowlers) will not get wickets with the new ball, expensive bowlers will become more and more expensive, then what will Babar Azam do as captain?”

    He severely criticized the management of the Board, stating, “Now there will be a gathering of cricketers in which they will ask questions about how to fix cricket. Why were you appointed in the cricket board, their job is to change the captain and coaching staff and understand they have done a great job and now everything will be fine. These people are under the misconception that unless there is love and passion for cricket, Pakistan cricket cannot recover an inch.”

    A few days ago, Ramiz Raja slammed the leaking of a provate conversation between Babar Azam and PCB Chief Operating Officer Salman Naseer. “Those who leak news and make some journalists favorites are defaming Pakistan’s cricket and now it should be stopped. The cricket board leaked Babar Azam’s WhatsApp chat, just listen to the recording of the chief selector, how much venom he is spewing against Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan,” he said at the time.

    Without mentioning the name of the head of the cricket board, Zaka Ashraf, he severely criticized him and said, “If cricket has to take a new turn, will we work with a 70-year-old person who does not know anything about selection in Pakistan? Club cricket is over, the people teaching there are doing politics.”

    He suggested that the whole system should be fixed but first, the cricket board should be fixed.

  • Australian Club Cricketer Takes Six Wickets In Six Balls To Win Match

    Australian Club Cricketer Takes Six Wickets In Six Balls To Win Match

    An Australian club cricketer took six wickets in an incredible final over to clinch victory in a one-day game over the weekend, describing the rare feat as “surreal”.

    Facing almost certain defeat in the Gold Coast’s Premier League Division 3, Mudgeeraba captain Gareth Morgan opted to bowl the last six balls himself with Surfers Paradise needing five runs to win with six wickets in hand.

    They dramatically collapsed with Morgan removing opener Jake Garland for 65 then dismissing the next five batters for golden ducks.

    “It is funny, the umpire said to me at the start of the over that I needed to take a hat-trick or something to win the game,” Morgan told the Gold Coast Bulletin after his exploits attracted national attention.

    “When it happened he just sort of looked at me.”

    He added to national broadcaster ABC that it was “very surreal”.

    “I remember thinking after I got the hat-trick — I don’t want to lose this game now,” he said.

    “Then it just went crazy. When I saw the stumps go back on the last ball I couldn’t believe it, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

    The first four dismissals were all caught, while the final two were bowled.

    The most wickets in an over in professional cricket is five, achieved by New Zealand’s Neil Wagner (2011), Bangladesh’s Al-Amin Hossain (2013) and India’s Abhimanyu Mithun (2019), according to ABC.