Mohsin Naqvi warned of Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan leaving Pakistan Cricket Team if any action is taken on..
Former Pakistan cricketer Ramiz Raja has slammed a report which cited the demotion of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan from their central contract category after Pakistan's early exit from the T20 World Cup 2024.
Pakistan had a poor campaign in the tournament as they bowed out of the group stage and couldn't make it to the Super 8 stage. As a result, two prominent batters in the team Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan had to bear the anger from the former cricketers and the fans.
According to a local media report, the star duo could lose their Category A status with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) after the team's early exit.
Both these batters had an ordinary time in the tournament. Their strike rates were particularly questioned as Babar scored 122 runs at a strike rate of 101.66 while Rizwan scored 110 runs at a strike rate of just 90.90.
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Ramiz Raja speaks on the demotion of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan
While speaking on a local show, Ramiz Raja argued that decreasing the salaries won't improve the team's performance. Ramiz came out in support of cricketers by saying that cricketers have a limited career and they should be paid handsomely.
“This is beyond me. Cricketers should be paid, simple as that. They have a limited career and PCB has a lot to give to the cricketers,” Raja stated on the show.
“If you decrease or withhold the salary of a workforce then it will result in the workforce leaving the job. This is an incredibly delicate matter that as a punishment you are decreasing or holding back the salary of someone,” he added while saying that the matter is quite delicate.
The former Pakistan batter also argued that the standard of cricket cannot be improved through such decisions.
“As I have said before, this is a knee-jerk reaction and you can not improve the standard by increasing or decreasing the pay of the cricketers,” Ramiz mentioned.
Pakistan bowed out of group stage in T20 World Cup 2024
Pakistan came into the T20 World Cup 2024 on the back of a defeat in a match against Ireland and a series defeat to England. They started their tournament in a poor fashion when they lost to an inexperienced USA team in the Super Over.
In their next match, they suffered a narrow defeat to arch-rivals India. Despite having India on the mat, Pakistan could not capitalise and fell short by 6 runs in a highly anticipated game at Nassau County Stadium, New York.
The Men in Green went on to win its last two matches against Canada and Ireland but that wasn't enough for them to secure a qualification to the Super 8 stage. After the group stage, they remained on 4 points.
Meanwhile, USA had a dream campaign as they qualified for the Super 8 stage as the second-best team in Group A behind India. USA finished on 5 points while India topped the group with 7 points.
