Arthur lambasts journalist for negative reporting

Pakistan’s Head Coach Mickey Arthur was highly critical of the massive backlash faced by the Men in Green, after Pakistan’s comfortable win against South Africa during the 2019 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup.

During a post-match press conference, a journalist raised a question about the fitness of Pakistan batsman Haris Sohail, who scored 89 runs from 59 deliveries and earned the player of the match award, which left the Pakistan head coach fuming.

 “You said Haris? Why don’t you write something positive about Haris? He got 80 of 59 balls today. Is that right or did I miss something? Why are you always talking negatively about our players?” said Arthur.

He also praised the left-handed batsman for the innings, which he termed as one of the “all-time brilliant”.

“That today was one of the all-time brilliant innings that I have seen. Let’s just write something positive for a change please,” he said.

Arthur also spoke about the precarious nature of the situation after Pakistan’s loss against India.

"Last Sunday I wanted to commit suicide, but it was only one performance. We always keep telling our players, it's one performance," Arthur, whose team are now seventh in the 10-team standings, said.

Pakistan had a miserable start to the World Cup and were looking at an early exit from the mega event, however a shock defeat of England by underdogs Sri Lanka has left the road to the World Cup wide open.

They faced huge backlash from all quarters after their defeat against arch-rivals India. Ex-players and journalists alike demanded widespread changes in the aftermath of Pakistan’s lacklustre start.

Pakistan turned in a significantly better performance against the Proteas just in time to build momentum in order to progress to the semi-final.

The Men in Green will have to win all three of their remaining matches and hope other results go their way in order to make it to the final stages of the tournament.

Pakistan will now face New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in the last leg of the round-robin stage.