Picture Credit: X
The decision from Babar Azam to give up white-ball captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team has been in the headlines for a variety of reasons in the past few days. Recently, on a TV show in Pakistan, when former cricketer Sikander Bakht severely criticised Babar Azam for “finally feeling ashamed” of his actions by quitting the national team captaincy, Salman Butt wasn’t having any of it as he defended him vehemently while listing his accolades as a cricketer over the last decade.
Notably, Babar Azam was sacked from captaincy of the Pakistan cricket team after a poor showing in the ODI World Cup 2023 in India, but just a few months later, he was reappointed as the white-ball captain in a bizarre turn of events. Although with the Men in Green bowing out of the T20 World Cup 2024 from the first round after losing to the USA for the first-time ever, the writing was on the wall for Babar Azam, and he finally gave up on leading the national team in an emotional post on X earlier this month.
Ab sharam ayi: Sikander Bakht to Babar Azam after quitting Pakistan's white-ball captaincy
During a live show on GEO News in Pakistan, Sikander Bakht was quite unhappy about why Babar Azam didn’t resign from captaincy after a disastrous T20 World Cup 2024 showing for the national team. He was quoted as saying, as per Times Now, “Ab sharam ayi! (You finally felt ashamed!) As soon as our World Cup was over on 16th June because we had not qualified further, he should have resigned at the same time. The whole nation was saying that he should have resigned. But he was stubborn. Because his style was like this, he was king (In a sarcastic way). His performance was not good, neither was theirs.”
In response, Salman Butt, the former Pakistan captain, addressed Sikander Bakht and said, “Dekhiye respect wahi deta hain jiski aapni hoti hain (See respect is given to someone who has its own) This is very very unfortunate. You’re criticising the player who has been the best player for Pakistan in the last five years. No player was consistent before him and among the current crop of cricketers, also there hasn’t been any other with such consistency. You can like or dislike any person but you should consider the player’s stature while criticising.”
Moreover, as per the reports, with the departure of Babar Azam, Pakistan are considering the option of appointing two different captains for the ODI and T20I formats while Shan Masood is set to lead the national team in the three-match Test series against England next week.
