LAHORE
\nWahab Riaz, Pakistan\u2019s experienced pacer, Wednesday shared his views about favouritism during Ramiz Raja\u2019s tenure as the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman when the chief selector of the national men\u2019s team was Mohammad Wasim.
\nTaking a dig at the former chief selector in an interview with private tv channel, the cricketer blamed Wasim for disregarding senior players regardless of their performances.
\nLaptop chief selector [Wasim] did poor selection. He didn\u2019t have justification for non-selection of players like Imad Wasim, Shoaib Malik, and Sarfaraz Ahmed, he highlighted.
\nThe cricketer, who last played an international match in 2020, questioned why Malik and Wasim\u2019s good performance in T20 World Cup 2021 did not show up on the chief selector\u2019s laptop.
\nWhy they were ignored for T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia? What was their fault? the 37-year-old cricketer asked.
\nWhen asked about talking to former PCB chairman Raja about the matter, Wahab said he didn\u2019t.
\nI know Ramiz bhai was the last authority. The chief selector was bound to communicate with us but in our culture, you communicate with people who always agree with you. You don\u2019t communicate to the people who know how to defend their stance, he mentioned.
\nWahab was dropped from the squad after he picked five wickets in two ODIs and four wickets in three T20Is he played in 2020, when Ehsan Mani was the PCB chairman and Wasim Khan was the CEO.
\nWahab reiterated that there must be a limit to favouritism.
\nThere must be a limit to favouritism. It\u2019s not right to sideline players calling them over-aged. If age is important, then the rule must be the same for everyone, the veteran pacer highlighted.
\nTake the example of Misbah bhai, who performed for Pakistan at 40+ age. I think the peak of any cricketer starts after the age of 30. There are a lot of other examples too. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Faf Du Plessis: all are 30+, but performing for their teams. In my opinion, age must not be the criterion. If any senior player is worthy for the team, he should be selected regardless of age, he maintained.
\nFollowing his recent form in Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2023, Wahab eyes a comeback to the national side.
\nThere have been a lot of highs and lows in my career but I always try to believe in my hard work and skills, said Wahab who completed his 400 T20 wickets during this year\u2019s BPL.
\nWahab became the only second pacer in T20 history to take 400 wickets. The first pacer was Dwayne Bravo of the West Indies.
\nMy job is to perform and make my case stronger. Obviously, it\u2019s World Cup year and I really want to represent Pakistan once again, added Wahab, who had already stated that he will decide his future after this year\u2019s mega 50-over format event.
\nWahab revealed that he was allowed to train at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Lahore without any hindrance.
\nI won\u2019t lie here, Nadem Khan [ex-Director High-Performance Center] allowed me to train in NCA every time. Yes, Amir and some other players, who didn\u2019t play for Pakistan during the last two years, weren\u2019t allowed. But, I always trained there and utilised all their facilities, he shared.
\nWahab sees Najam Sethi\u2019s arrival as positive for the betterment of cricket in the country.
\nNajam Sethi\u2019s arrival is good for cricket. I hope he does justice with players like me, Sarfaraz, Hafeez, Malik and Hassan Ali who have performed well for Pakistan, he concluded. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAHORE Wahab Riaz, Pakistan\u2019s experienced pacer, Wednesday shared his views about favouritism during Ramiz Raja\u2019s tenure as the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman when the chief selector of the national men\u2019s team was Mohammad Wasim. Taking a dig at the former chief selector in an interview with private tv channel, the cricketer blamed Wasim for disregarding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n