Karachi, Sept. 7: Beleaguered coach Waqar Younis gave a dressing down to the senior players of the Pakistan team and asked them to either leave cricket or improve their performances at the international level.
Sources in the national team presently touring England said that Waqar had come down really hard on his players after the team lost the first T20 international at Cardiff. “Waqar was very angry and pointedly told some senior players that if they can’t improve their fielding or performance they should leave the game,” one source said.
The Pakistan team, which is facing lot of pressure after the suspension of Test captain Salman Butt and pace bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir in the spot-fixing scandal that broke out after the Lords Test, lost the first T20 match by five wickets.
Sloppy fielding by senior players including Shoaib Akhtar and Abdul Razzaq saw Pakistan lose their grip on the match and the source said after the match, the Pakistan coach was furious.
“Waqar was angry as he felt the senior players in given situation had not pulled their weight,” the source added.
Another source said that some of the players were not very happy with the outburst by Waqar and conveyed this to manager, Yawar Saeed.
“The players feel that at a time when the players need support of not only the people but also of the management the attitude of the coach was not acceptable and would not help the situation in the team,” the source said. Captain Shahid Afridi also spoke to the players and calmed them down and made it clear to them they also needed to perform and deliver as the team needed to win to take the people’s mind off the spot-fixing and betting issues.