Pakistan’s wicketkeeper batsman, Kamran Akmal opened up about former head coach, Waqar Younis and claimed that he had no plans on how to take Pakistan cricket forward that eventually the damaged it.
He pointed out his vision of using Younis Khan as an opener during World Cup 2015 and not playing Sarfraz Ahmed till the later part of the tournament hurt the campaign.
“I don’t know the reasons but Waqar certainly had issues with some players. He had no plans on how to take Pakistan forward. An example was when he went to the 2015 World Cup and asked Younis Khan to open the innings and then sidelined Sarfraz Ahmed until late in the tournament,” Kamran Akmal, who is out of the national team, told a private TV channel.
He is the first current player to express himself against the legendary fast bowler. Akmal termed him a complete failure and his urge to experiment with different team combination cost them.
“With due respect, Waqar was a failure as a coach and he caused lot of damage to Pakistan cricket. In his enthusiasm to experiment and sideline established players, he put the national team back by two to three years,” he further told.
“I can remember Umar Akmal scored a hundred in an Asia Cup match and in the next game he was batting behind Shahid Afridi and others. Waqar no doubt was a great player for Pakistan but as a coach, he was a total failure,” he added.
He addressed the issue further and recalled Pakistan’s disastrous run in Bangladesh where they lost the ODI as well as the T20 series for the first time. According to the eldest of Akmals, Waqar Younis was the sole responsible for the outcome.
He took six to seven new players to Bangladesh after the World Cup and the result was we lost both the one-day and T20 series for the first time against them.”
The 35-year old accused Waqar Younis of making players train hard rather than polishing their cricketing skills.
“I have played under different coaches including Bob Woolmer and I can say they used to plan and they used to create a rapport with the players. Waqar insisted on training hard all the time and not having the players also focus on their skills and cricket development was damaging to the team,” he stated.
