Today's Edition
Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi)
Cricket experts and commentators have voiced their disapproval after a report emerged that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to impose a fine of around $18,000 each on their national team players after Pakistan failed to qualify for Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals.
PCB "officials have clearly told the players that enough pampering has been done – from now on, financial benefits will only come with performance," the Express Tribune reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, the PCB had decided to fine the players after Pakistan lost a group-stage match to India by 61 runs on February 15.
However, after the team qualified for the Super Eight stage, the players were told the fine could be waived if Pakistan reached the semi-finals. Pakistan needed to beat co-host Sri Lanka by 65 runs in the last group match to qualify for final four ahead of New Zealand. They only managed to win by five runs.
The report said PCB officials told the playing group that if they accepted rewards for good performances, "they must also pay penalties for poor ones".
Reacting to the news, former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi told TV channel Samaa: "This is a decision that's hard to understand. That's narrow-minded thinking. This is a small amount. What will you even do with that fine amount? It doesn't even sound like a penalty," he said.
Instead Afridi suggested other ways to respond. "Players who did not perform, send them to first-class cricket. There are some players, I feel, who shouldn't be in the team for at least two years. That's enough."
The fines will include even those who have performed. So a player like Sahibzada Farhan, who broke Virat Kohli's record for most runs in a T20 World Cup and finished the tournament with 383 runs would be treated the same as Naseem Shah who was only picked in the playing XI for one game.
Pakistan also has not beaten India in a major event since 2022, something Osman Samiuddin wrote about in ESPNCricinfo.
"Clearly, losses to India sting this PCB leadership more than any others, because other than those losses, Pakistan have been winning loads of T20Is. The most since February last year, with the second-best win-loss ratio," Samiuddin noted.
