PAK vs BAN: 'They're Going To Be Blaming Everybody..'- Mickey Arthur Pulls The Trigger Against PCB After Pakistan's Drubbing At ICC World Cup 2023

Mickey Arthur, the Pakistan coach, has said that it would be unfair to start a witch-hunt for the team’s poor performance in the ongoing ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. While Pakistan’s hopes of making it to the semifinal took another huge blow with the defeat against South Africa on Friday (October 27), they are still in contention to progress.

But the post-mortem on their campaign has started already. Recently, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) released a statement, saying that captain Babar Azam and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq were given the freedom to form the squad for the competition. The board had also stated that it “would make decisions in the best interests of Pakistan cricket based on the team’s performances in the World Cup.”

Reports from Pakistani media suggest that Babar Azam is likely to be sacked as the captain of the side after the World Cup. Recently, former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif revealed that the PCB officials including the chairman are not responding to Babar’s messages. And while only time will tell how things unfold in the coming days, Mickey Arthur has said pinning the blame on a few individuals would be unfair.

“They’re going to be blaming everybody, don’t worry. It’s just the way of the world,” the Pakistan coach said after the game against South Africa.

“It’s really unfair to start a witch-hunt, certainly on Babar Azam, on Inzi [chief selector, Inzamam-ul-Haq], on our coaches, on the management team.What I do know is the boys have tried and the effort of the coaching staff, the effort of the players has been first-class. If they would see that the amount of effort that the players and staff put in, they would be amazed,” he added.

Lack of perfect game irks Mickey Arthur:

Speaking further, Mickey Arthur expressed his frustration over Pakistan not being able to put together a perfect game, a game where everything clicks for the team. Against South Africa, they were reeling at 141 for 5 before an 84-run stand between Saud Shakeel and Shadab Khan put them on course for a 300-plus total. However, they lost their last five wickets for just 35 runs to be all out for 270.

With the ball, they did well to reduce South Africa to 260 for 9. But the Men in Green failed to break the last-wicket stand between Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi. Expressing his frustration, Mickey Arthur said:

“Tonight, I thought was our best bowling performance of the competition. I thought we bowled really well, but I still thought we were under-par in terms of the runs that we had. We haven’t put the perfect game together yet. It hasn’t been for lack of effort, hasn’t been for lack of trying, but we just haven’t got enough players in form at the minute, particularly with the bat.

“Tonight is a totally different feeling in that dressing-room to the Afghanistan game. The Afghanistan game, we were average in all departments. Tonight, we were okay with the bat, I thought we were very good with the ball. And tonight, I’m really proud of those [players] because they fought right to the bitter end,” he added.

With just 2 wins from 6 games, Pakistan are on the verge of getting knocked out of the World Cup. At present, they are languishing at the sixth spot in the points table.