'Social media' selections hampering Pakistan cricket: Rashid Latif

Pakistan’s former cricketer Rashid Latif, in a Youtube video on Monday, claimed that ‘social media’ selections are hampering Pakistan cricket while the country’s steady decline continued in the world’s ranking.

The 52-year-old pointed out various controversial selections while stating that winning on social media did not translate to real-life success on the ground.

“I had the chance to look at domestic cricket first-class matches. There was a bowler Irfan Ullah Shah from the KP side, he showed great movement on a flat Karachi track with the old ball. He couldn’t be part of the PSL either. All franchises have social media accounts of their own and they need to please all of them. They have won on social media but our team has gone to the number seventh spot in the world rankings. We have to take this into account, we gain nothing from winning on social media. Everyone has kept their own people, players have their own people in the selection committee and the same goes for franchises. Our cricket is on a steady decline,” Latif said.

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“I think Abdullah Shafique is a good player but it is too early. They gave a good run to Imran Butt. But we have to ask what Hussain Talat and Khushdil Shah did wrong. They went in to play such a lesser amount of deliveries and then got dropped. We feel there is a lot of likes and dislikes that are going around. The selection committee has five individuals and I think each brings in their own players. I have this doubt. Some might be from high-ranking officials in the PCB because we know all of them. We have been through this process,” he added.

The former cricketer believed Peshawar Zalmi’s Mohammad Imran would have been a better choice than most youngsters in the current squad but couldn’t make it into the side because he could not generate social media hype.

“This is an issue for the entire selection committee. Shadab Khan is a good player, we aren’t saying he isn’t. Whoever got selected, we think they are good. Then you have players like Abdullah Shafique, Shahnawaz Dhani, Wasim Jr, all these are new players. I however think Peshawar Zalmi’s Mohammad Imran had better returns than all of these new players. But he doesn’t ball above 140 kph and is more of a typical T20 bowler. He had many variations but bowled near 130 kph and couldn’t create hype for himself. Performance-wise however I think he had the best economy rate. He didn’t make it into the side,” he said.