Kamran Akmal slams Ramiz Raja, Babar Azam for 'favouritism' in team selection

With Pakistan losing to Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup 2022 final, former wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal lashed out at the team's culture and management for favouritism. The 40-year-old criticised Babar Azam and co. for 'liking and disliking' within the outfit. Speaking to Cricket Pakistan, he said, "I have been talking for the last four to five years about liking and disliking in the team. The same thing is happening in domestic cricket. This will damage Pakistan cricket as these things are coming out and have now become obvious."

Akmal also pointed his scathing criticism towards head coach Saqlain Mushtaq and PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja. Speaking about the 'culture', he said, "When we used to play, this culture was not there. Has anyone talked about these things during our time compared to today, where players are saying openly? The concerned individuals used to form good teams. The best way is to dig out performance. We can't say only the captain is doing it. PCB Chairman must start from High Performance camp where best coaches are thrown out and friends are being appointed".

"There is no coordination in management; they are egoistic and think that they will remain in PCB for their whole life. I have seen that all the blame is associated with players and management doesn't take on to them. The past three coaches also blamed players and didn't accept that our decisions were wrong", he further added.

He also had a message for former player Raja and asked him to examine domestic cricket. "Tell me when coaches have been held accountable. but I have hope because of Ramiz Raja, who is also a former cricketer", he said.

"Ramiz Raja must know the value of a cricketer is whether he is part of an international team or not. We can see in National T20 Cup too, the ones who have scored 5000 runs are in the second XI. Can't he ask Nadeem Khan, Mohammad Wasim and selectors what they have done to the domestic sides? If players can't make their way into the national side, should they also not play domestic?"