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Pakistan ‘must move on’ after Australia, says Wasim

KARACHI - Former bowling great Wasim Akram Monday called for positive steps in Pakistan cricket following humiliating defeats in Australia, saying the team needed a strong approach to progress.

“Pakistan cricket must move on after what happened in Australia,” Wasim told AFP. “No one was expecting such disappointing results, especially in the one-day matches but we need to move on as we have no dearth of talent.”

Australia beat Pakistan 3-0 in Tests — their fourth straight whitewash — before winning all five one-day matches and the only Twenty20 international in a tour which finished last Friday.

Chief selector Iqbal Qasim resigned following the defeat which also forced the Pakistan Cricket Board to name a six-man committee to probe the causes of the debacle, with Wasim Akram as one of its members.

Wasim, arguably the best left-arm paceman ever to play cricket, said the committee’s aim was not to punish or sack people.

“The idea is to evaluate the reasons of defeats and not to punish anyone. Through this evaluation we need to give a cushion to the Pakistan team,” said Wasim, who played 104 Tests and 356 one-day matches for Pakistan.

He said Pakistan needed “one good captain for all three forms of the game... because we are getting not even one good captain.”

He said it made no sense to talk of separate Test, one-day and Twenty20 captains, and suggested Shahid Afridi for the unified role.

“Afridi can lead the team in all three forms, he is a quality cricketer but needs to learn the rules of the game. I hope he has learnt his lessons after what happened in Perth,” he said, referring to a ball-tampering incident.

Afridi was banned for two Twenty20 matches after he was caught by television cameras biting the ball to change its condition, in violation of the rules.

Wasim said he also noticed “that the team lacked spirit, the will to win and aggression with their body language after Sydney defeat was very abysmal.

“We weren’t expecting such disappointing results because Australia is not as strong an outfit as it used to be, with lots of great players retired,” he said. “But I still think we need to put all that behind us.”