Cricket
Ramiz Raja might replace Babar Azam as Pakistan captain, jokes Sanjay Manjrekar
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Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has joked that Pakistan might reinstate former cricketer Ramiz Raja as the captain of the side if they end up sacking Babar Azam. Speaking on Star Sports after their exit from the T20 World Cup, Manjrekar said that Pakistan have a habit of calling Ramiz Raja whenever they are in crisis and this feels like one of those situations.
Pakistan were knocked out from the group stages of the T20 World Cup after losing to the USA and India. The Babar Azam-led side looked poor with the bat in the matches that they played amidst massive controversy about their preparation and team selection.
“You know, when they’ve been in trouble, Pakistan cricket, they always go to Ramiz Raja to save them. He becomes a CEO or whatever. Maybe who knows? Babar Azam could be replaced by Ramiz Raja as captain. He looks pretty fit. You never know,” Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
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Anything can happen
Speaking on the same panel, Sunil Gavaskar vented his frustrations about Pakistan’s instability in their cricketing structure. Asked if Babar Azam would be sacked from captaincy, Gavaskar said that at this point, anything could happen.
“You can never tell what is going to happen. I mean, he was the captain six months ago in the ODI World Cup, and then he was removed. Shaheen Shah Afridi came for about two or three months. They didn’t have a good tour of New Zealand and again Babar Azam comes back. So in Pakistan cricket, you can never tell,” Gavaskar said.
The legendary batter took another dig at Pakistan stars and hinted that their cricketers were not serious about the decisions that they made. Gavaskar said that Pakistan cricketers, when they announced their retirements, would never stay retired and come back. In the 2024 T20 World Cup, Imad Wasim and Mohammad Amir are two players who had earlier retired from international cricket. However, they decided to return to play the ICC tournament.
“When you talk about retirement over there, that retirement is just basically a pause in their career. They always come back, you know, saying that ‘Pakistan public loves me and they want me to come back’, so that kind of thing happens. So you’ll never take a retirement announcement by a Pakistani too seriously, because we know that it is just not a retirement,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
Pakistan Cricket Board and the players have been heavily criticised by the former players after their exit in the T20 World Cup. Former players like Wasim Akram have asked for wholesale changes in the team.
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