RAWALPINDI, SEPT 4 :  Describing the Pakistan cricket team’s rapid downward spiral as “alarming”, a leading media outlet of the country has said the side’s “regressed state” has given an all-new meaning to the term ‘rock bottom.

The analytical report in Express Tribune blasted the side and those managing the game in the country for its string of poor performances – losing eight Test matches consecutively and failing to make the semifinals of the 50-over World Cup in India and the T20 World Cup held in the US and West Indies

Very recently, Bangladesh beat Pakistan 2-0 in a one-sided series, winning not only their first Test against the more elite side but also created history with their maiden Test series win against Pakistan.

Coming down heavily on those managing Pakistan cricket, the daily linked it to the state of democracy in Pakistan.
“In a country increasingly shorn of democratic values, it is little surprise that merit is heavily compromised in the Pakistan Cricket Board – the game’s governing body – where ad hocism has taken root,” it said, commenting that the string of defeats of late “to minnows USA, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Afghanistan in the ODIs, and now in the Tests at home against Bangladesh, makes the mind boggle”.

It regretted that since 1998, only hand-picked favourites of the respective ruling regimes in the country have “taken turns as PCB chairmen to run the game in their own clueless manner, only to ruin it”.

“For a country that made its international cricket debut back in 1952, nearly 72 years ago, no real effort has been made either by the governments or the PCB heads to streamline the game on scientific lines or to systemically groom the tremendous raw talent in the country,” it said.

“More detrimental have been the tell-tale signs of the pool of players deemed good enough to represent the national sides shrinking considerably. Besides, the poor state of domestic cricket and docile pitches have failed to groom the batters and the bowlers for the competitive international cricket standards,” the report pointed out.

“It is a pity that the bosses in Pakistan cricket have neither had the time nor the inclination to carry an overhaul to set things right,” the report said, adding “Sitting pretty in their cushy jobs, handed to them in a platter by the respective regimes, they are busy working on their own respective agenda”. (UNI)