PCB labeled as real villain as Ramiz Raja defends Babar Azam following Pakistan's early exit from T20 World Cup

The ODI World Cup-winning former batsman Ramiz Raja blasted the Pakistani team and the Pakistan Cricket Board for messing the team up in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. 

Pakistan's exit from the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies was confirmed yesterday after the USA and Ireland's Group A was abandoned. Both the teams received a point each and that was all that the co-hosts needed to qualify for the Super 8s. The Pakistani team which reached the semi-final and final of the previous two editions, are not even going to be there in the second round. 

The Men in Green led by Babar Azam had become runners-up in the 2022 edition in Australia despite being in a similar situation as they were this time around. Back then their luck was in favor but this time around luck favoured the team which well and truly deserved to go through. USA will be joined by Group A toppers India along with South Africa, Australia, Afghanistan, and West Indies. 

What did Ramiz Raja say about the PCB and Pakistan team? 

While speaking in his latest YouTube video, Ramiz Raja thrashed the Mohsin Naqvi-led PCB management for tormenting the team with over-experiment. Raja used an Urdu reference, claiming that PCB has made the team a mixture of different things at once just like a pickle gets made.  

"Aapne choon-choon ka murabba bana diya hai iss team ko (you have turned this team into a mixture of varied things)," Raja said. 

Pakistan and Babar Azam 😆 pic.twitter.com/iR2iagUXk7

— Johns (@JohnyBravo183) June 15, 2024

The 1992 World Cup winner then criticized PCB for handing recalls to internationally retired players like all-rounder Imad Wasim and seamer Mohammad Amir. Ramiz Raja claimed that by doing so, the board let go of some talented players and brought back players who left the National setup themselves after saying things about the captain. 

"You brought back old, retired players so that somehow you save your face in the T20 World Cup...(you) let some of the good talent slip away just because this is a World Cup and it requires experience, we have to bring back retired players, even if they have bitched about the captain," Raja added. 

Raja claims something similar had happened in 2003 CWC 

Ramiz Raja then narrated about something similar happening during the 2003 Cricket World Cup when the team gathered superstars but lost dramatically. In that edition, Pakistan got knocked out from the group stages itself as Raja admitted that it was a team full of aging superstars who just could not work their magic anymore. 

Raja believes something similar happened to the team in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. 

"The team doesn't work that way; we have tried this before. I think it was the 2003 World Cup. We gathered all the super stars in that team thinking that experience will come handy. But those were ageing stars, and Pakistan couldn't be saved. We got beaten badly there as well," Ramiz Raja concluded.