‘Where's your nationalism?’ - Javed Miandad lashes out at PCB for not accepting his mentorship services

Former Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandad wasn’t convinced with the batting performances of Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2022 final against Sri Lanka. Despite a good start from the likes of Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed, Pakistan failed to accelerate in the middle overs and ended up falling short by 23 runs. More than the defeat, it was the way the Pakistan batters gifted their wickets that seemed to be a talking point among the experts.  

The likes of Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam had a pretty poor tournament as they could not get their strike rate up, and while Rizwan scored the most runs in the tournament, he scored them at a concerning strike rate as well. Miandad was not happy with the board ignoring him for the mentorship responsibility despite Pakistan's batting problems.

I'm sure the players will benefit from my presence: Javed Miandad 

Miandad said that he could have benefitted the Pakistan team with his presence in the dressing room and went on to question the board's nationalism. He added that he would have solved the issues in the batting lineup of when to accelerate and when to keep wickets in hand.  

“People like me are literally sitting here. Personally, I don't want anything but use us! I have always kept Pakistan first. You have people here. We don't want money. I'm sure the players will benefit from my presence. I come with a lot of experience. The way they lost, it hurts,” Miandad was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. 

“It's actually shameful. You have so many people here, where is your nationalism? What Pakistan are you talking about? If I were there, I would have told them to keep wickets in hand and accelerate at the right time. I have experience. But these kids don't know, they just go out there and start hitting. They don't know which bowler to hit, what's the problem and when to stay at the wicket,” he added.