Karachi: Former all-rounder Yasir Arafat has accused Pakistan cricket of favoritism and has claimed that the team management fast-tracked some players and overshadowed talented players.
“When I made my debut in 2000, we had come after playing the U19 World Cup in Sri Lanka. The Pakistan senior team had come back from Australia at the time and there were a lot of changes being made. They had dropped 5-6 players due to the bad performance,” Arafat told wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal on his YouTube channel.
He revealed that the attitude of senior players would feel you unwelcome in the side. “In that match, Younis Khan and another batsman Imran Abbas also made their debuts. The atmosphere was such, and the senior players had such an attitude that you would feel that you are unwelcome in the team,” he added.
“It felt like an alien atmosphere where, if you need to perform, you needed to do it all by yourself and you won’t get any support at all,” he maintained.
Arafat even claimed that even when Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood, two of Pakistan’s finest all-rounder did not play and players far less experienced than him were given preference and he was not in good books.
“As far as Pakistan cricket is concerned, we haven’t had better all-rounders than Razzaq and Mahmood but even when they were not there, other cricketers were fast-tracked based on someone’s liking, someone who had played two matches of first-class cricket or not played at all. I didn’t understand why I was not in their good books,” he added.
It must be noted that Arafat played three Tests, 11 ODIs and 13 T20Is for Pakistan. – Agencies
