Razzaq lashes out at PCB

[Xuhaib]

Miffed at his "illogical" omission from the team for the Twenty20 World Championship, Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq has threatened to make himself unavailable for the national side.

"If this is the way I am going to be treated after serving the country honestly and diligently, then I should be the one now to decide when to make myself available for national selection," he said in a TV interview.

The 27-year-old cricketer, who has played 46 Tests and 231 one-dayers, was dropped for the Twenty20 World Cup on the grounds that he had become slow on the field and his bowling was no longer effective or penetrative.

Razzaq, who has taken 246 wickets and scored 4465 runs in one-dayers, said what hurt him most was that no one from the board or selectors had bothered to call him and explain why he was being dropped.

"I don't know what was the logic behind not selecting me. I am a senior player and deserve a phone call. Even when I was injured no one in the board bothered to call me up and find out how I was doing," he said.

Razzaq asserted that he was fully fit and had done well in the Twenty20 version of the game.

"I worked hard in the training camp and played in the matches as well. I am a senior player. If this is the reward one gets for all these years of service than I will have to rethink my future line of action," he said.

Razzaq, one of the seven Pakistani players to have got offers to play in the lucrative Indian Cricket League, said he was mulling over after being dropped from the national team.

"I need to know what they have in mind but I am considering the ICL offer," he said.

The all-rounder also complained of not being properly utilised by his captains in the past. He said only Wasim Akram and Moin Khan utilised his talents properly.

"Otherwise rest of the time I was not sure where I was supposed to bat or when I was supposed to bowl and for how long. It disturbed me," he recalled.

Sources said the Pakistan Cricket Board has obtained a transcript of the interview and is thinking off charging Razzaq with violating the players code of conduct for his comments

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haha...I saw that interview on the telly and all Razzaq was doing was coming up with excuses about his lacklustre recent performances, he even said that president of Pakistan should take action against Naseem Ashraf (PCB chairman) since Ashraf failed to taken any action against Younis Kan when Younis declined the captaincy . All I can say is good riddance to a very average cricketer.

 

[Beleg]

Abdul Razzaq was not an average cricketer.

He was a fairly rare breed; his hand-eye co-ordination was astonishing and for a guy whose preferred footwork amounted to getting his right leg out of the way and swinging, he was able to play some pretty amazing shots. He could also stonewall with the best of them, and more importantly - he could do that on pitches which were offering considerble assistance to the bowlers. (Leeds '99, Bristol '99, Bourda '00, Brisbane '00 are all very good examples) This, in itself, made him a highly valueable asset - since it provided the captain with an option to tough it out without unduly exposing the top order, if they wished to do so.

His striking ability speaks for itself.

As a bowler, he was at the top of his game during the '99-'00 session. He was hitting the deck hard, clocking in consistently at over 85 mph and reversing the ball all over the place. Not uncoincidently, his physical fitness also hit its peak at that time.

Then came the decline. And it's a fairly odd decline, since you can't pinpoint it to a specific match, a specific injury, a series or even a year. He started losing speed, his ability to reverse swing the ball suffered drastically, and insteading of banging the ball in allowing it to nip and cut of the seem,, he started merely dropping the ball - going through the motions, as it were - practically begging the batsmen to dole out an appropriate punishment.

I think, ultimately, what he lacks is concious cricketing accumen. Throughout his career, and I have seen almost all of it, he seems to be at his best when he has clear instructions regarding the method of defense/attack. He seems to have trouble pacing his innings, and his first instinct almost always seems either to block or hit out - turning over the strike casually (as is the wont of great cricketers like dravid, miandad, ponting and yes, even inzy) seems to take a herculian amount of effort; sometimes it almost makes me cringe.

What he lacked, and something which is unfortunately very important to succeed in cricketing heirchies as cloudy as Pakistan, was a brain which could process the playing situation quickly and compactly and modulate his game accordingly. On the rare instances he was able to get the connection right/was managed/instructed properly, he showed an impressive variety of cricketing arsenal.

I do think there's some justification in Razzaq's accusitions. Obviously, Razzaq isn't the fittest of lads, and to a large extent, he is personally responsible for taking care of his fitness level - the expectancy is just another example of the enormous sense of entitlement Pakistani cricketers seem to possess - and his plea to President of Pakistan is further reflection of a stunning ignorance, unfortunately common among my countrymen, regarding the usage of proper channels and the inability to accept responsibility, instead leashing out blindly in whatever manner possible.

But a good coach, around '99/'00 would have helped razzaq tremendously. A proactive captain, even an authoritarian one like Imran, would have done him enormous benefit. Since he seems incapable of drawing inspiration from inside, he needs to lbe ead strongly - and people like Inzy, although stellar players themselves and reservoirs of mental strength, aren't exactly known for their man management skills.

I don't think he should play test cricket any further, unless he proves himself again in First class cricket and county cricket. Of course, we all know that ability and performance doesn't translate to a national team berth in Pakistan, well placed contacts, bribes or family members do. However, I think he is perfectly capable of functioning well in the 20/20 format - his hitting ability certainly hasn't sufferred - the format is shot enough that it shouldn't tax his attention span unduly, and his bowling wouldn't really be needed too much.

And yet the Pakistani selector, regardless of whatever internal mechanism/fights, have seen fit to exclude perhaps the one player in our team best suited for the format out of its premier championship.

As far as I am concerned it's the final nail in the coffin, Razzaq's stardom, like his contemporary (Saqlain) is well and truly burried.


Contemplating the lot of the late '90 generation of Pakistani cricketers kinda puts a damper on my mode.

 

[Richard]

^^^Yawer for the Afridi (not for the first time) if Akhil hasn't picked it already (and I'm about to find-out whether he has).

 

[Sanz]

Abdul Razzaq was not an average cricketer.

He was a fairly rare breed; his hand-eye co-ordination was astonishing and for a guy whose preferred footwork amounted to getting his right leg out of the way and swinging, he was able to play some pretty amazing shots. He could also stonewall with the best of them, and more importantly - he could do that on pitches which were offering considerble assistance to the bowlers. (Leeds '99, Bristol '99, Bourda '00, Brisbane '00 are all very good examples) This, in itself, made him a highly valueable asset - since it provided the captain with an option to tough it out without unduly exposing the top order, if they wished to do so.

His striking ability speaks for itself.

As a bowler, he was at the top of his game during the '99-'00 session. He was hitting the deck hard, clocking in consistently at over 85 mph and reversing the ball all over the place. Not uncoincidently, his physical fitness also hit its peak at that time.

Then came the decline. And it's a fairly odd decline, since you can't pinpoint it to a specific match, a specific injury, a series or even a year. He started losing speed, his ability to reverse swing the ball suffered drastically, and insteading of banging the ball in allowing it to nip and cut of the seem,, he started merely dropping the ball - going through the motions, as it were - practically begging the batsmen to dole out an appropriate punishment.

I think, ultimately, what he lacks is concious cricketing accumen. Throughout his career, and I have seen almost all of it, he seems to be at his best when he has clear instructions regarding the method of defense/attack. He seems to have trouble pacing his innings, and his first instinct almost always seems either to block or hit out - turning over the strike casually (as is the wont of great cricketers like dravid, miandad, ponting and yes, even inzy) seems to take a herculian amount of effort; sometimes it almost makes me cringe.

What he lacked, and something which is unfortunately very important to succeed in cricketing heirchies as cloudy as Pakistan, was a brain which could process the playing situation quickly and compactly and modulate his game accordingly. On the rare instances he was able to get the connection right/was managed/instructed properly, he showed an impressive variety of cricketing arsenal.

I do think there's some justification in Razzaq's accusitions. Obviously, Razzaq isn't the fittest of lads, and to a large extent, he is personally responsible for taking care of his fitness level - the expectancy is just another example of the enormous sense of entitlement Pakistani cricketers seem to possess - and his plea to President of Pakistan is further reflection of a stunning ignorance, unfortunately common among my countrymen, regarding the usage of proper channels and the inability to accept responsibility, instead leashing out blindly in whatever manner possible.

But a good coach, around '99/'00 would have helped razzaq tremendously. A proactive captain, even an authoritarian one like Imran, would have done him enormous benefit. Since he seems incapable of drawing inspiration from inside, he needs to lbe ead strongly - and people like Inzy, although stellar players themselves and reservoirs of mental strength, aren't exactly known for their man management skills.

I don't think he should play test cricket any further, unless he proves himself again in First class cricket and county cricket. Of course, we all know that ability and performance doesn't translate to a national team berth in Pakistan, well placed contacts, bribes or family members do. However, I think he is perfectly capable of functioning well in the 20/20 format - his hitting ability certainly hasn't sufferred - the format is shot enough that it shouldn't tax his attention span unduly, and his bowling wouldn't really be needed too much.

And yet the Pakistani selector, regardless of whatever internal mechanism/fights, have seen fit to exclude perhaps the one player in our team best suited for the format out of its premier championship.

As far as I am concerned it's the final nail in the coffin, Razzaq's stardom, like his contemporary (Saqlain) is well and truly burried.


Contemplating the lot of the late '90 generation of Pakistani cricketers kinda puts a damper on my mode.

Wow. Perfectly sums of my sentiments.

 

[Sanz]

Haha...I saw that interview on the telly and all Razzaq was doing was coming up with excuses about his lacklustre recent performances, he even said that president of Pakistan should take action against Naseem Ashraf (PCB chairman) since Ashraf failed to taken any action against Younis Kan when Younis declined the captaincy . All I can say is good riddance to a very average cricketer.

How can someone call Razzaq an average cricketer is beyond me. And I dont understand why an action should be taken against Younis khan for declining captaincy.

 

[Xuhaib]

How can someone call Razzaq an average cricketer is beyond me. And I dont understand why an action should be taken against Younis khan for declining captaincy.

If you look at his test record he is as average as it can get, sure his ODI record is much better but even that is declining especially his bowling which is almost a non-entity now. This step should have been taken a long time Razzaq has been in his comfort zone and he certainly has looked demotivated, hopefully this kick in his backside should shake him up a bit and he might get back to his pre 2004 days but whatever happens he ahould never be considered for test cricket where he has always struggled barring an odd good test or two..

 

[no1_gangsta_786]

I didn't want to start a new thread so ill just say it here. Shoaib Akhtar has appealed against the fine he recieved.

 

[Matt79]

Wow, Geoff Lawson has inherited a happy team, hey?

 

[nightprowler10]

I didn't want to start a new thread so ill just say it here. Shoaib Akhtar has appealed against the fine he recieved.

Oh, so they finally found him?