You don’t become champion only by achieving results: Sana Mir responds to criticism

Pakistan women team skipper Sana Mir on Thursday wrote an open letter in a bid to clear the air about their dismal performance in the Women World Cup 2017.

In this letter she stressed on realizing the fact that losing is also part of the game and that every defeat held a lesson in it to push you forward. She also addressed the recent scathing remarks of her coach that appeared in media.

She started off saying, “There is no shame in losing; there is only shame in not giving your 100%.”

“Sports should have taught us this lesson much earlier if we had played it in its true essence and the right spirit. Champions are made through the process of preparing and playing and the struggles they endure in their journey towards their goals.

“You do not become a champion only by achieving results. A Champion is an individual who can get back up from one failure to face the next challenge; who is ready to analyse and improve him/herself and is ready to work harder next time,” she wrote on her social media account.

She personally felt compunction over their failure in the big tournament, but said her team gave its 100 percent to put up the fights.

“Of course everyone who has watched women’s cricket and given attention to it in the last 3-4 years have felt disappointment with our run in the World Cup 2017. We as players are gutted too. We have also worked really hard to put up the fights we did. We feel so disappointment for not crossing the line to the winning side at least in four matches of this tournament,” she said.

Read More: Sana, seniors responsible for WWC defeat, says coach

Sana Mir, “I would have preferred not to have had this conversation through the media but since a confidential report by the coach and comments by GM Women Wing and Chairman PCB have been making headlines, I feel obliged to give a short response to clarify some issues from my point of view.”

Coach of the national women’s cricket team Sabih Azhar has said in a report that Sana Mir, senior players and team manager Ayesha Asher are responsible for all-defeat show in the Women’s World Cup.

Sabih Azhar, who gallantly took up challenge to help the team barely a month before the mega event, blamed the team’s defeat in the mega event on Captain Sana Mir, some players and manager Ayesha Asher in his report.

On the other hand, speaking up on what created breach between her and her coach and rejecting Azhar’s report Sana said it was a matter of selection of one young blood in the team.

“My coordination with the coach suffered when I insisted on playing Diana Baig, who was in absolutely great form. That was our major disagreement. Diana is talented and was in great form in the WWC 2017,” she said.

She said she wanted to play a youngster in the team who was ready for international cricket and she did not regret it.

Moreover, the Pakistan skipper blamed batsmen for the defeat for miscarrying against spinners and succumbing to pressure.

“We suffered defeats in this World Cup as spinners with the new ball penetrated our top order consistently in each game, specially left arm spinners. We are also still short of players who can perform under pressure.

“We should be talking about cricketing problems we need to address, in a constructive and professional manner, rather than personalising issues,” she said.

The coach has alleged that in presence of three senior players including Sana “no junior player can come to the prominence.”

In response, the captain said that journalists were free to ask junior players about their attitude towards juniors.

“No one can have a 100% record but it’s disheartening to see a coach maligning the senior players who have been giving confidence and guidance to youngsters for so long,” she said.

“A player’s primary job is to perform. They can facilitate the growth of other players but it’s the job of the system to work on new players,” she added.

She said, “I am not a perfect captain nor I have claimed it anywhere or we are the perfect team. But I would have appreciated it if the coach would have stood by the team like other coaches did.

“I want to make it clear I don’t intend to continue in the future with the current setup of the Women’s Wing in any capacity. Having said that I would still be sharing a detailed report with all of you to improve women’s cricket once I get back by the end of August In sha Allah.”