Random Cricket Photos Post 42


#RandomCricketPhotosThatMakeMeHappy

When they were good, they were great. When they were bad, they were diabolical. That's the story of Pakistan cricket for as long as I have watched the game.

Post the 2003 World Cup debacle, it was the diabolical that came out in public. As a punishment for their early exit, the members of the team's World Cup squad were fined half their earnings from the tournament according to an agreement signed before the tournament. Several players got dropped. Captain Waqar Younis was sacked and never played for Pakistan again.

But worse was to follow as the senior members of the team squabbled in public. Leading the way, of course was the mercurial speedster Shoaib Akhtar, who after a mediocre World Cup gave a colorful interview where he piled on the blame for the exit on his more illustrious seniors. He told Guardian's David Hopps,

"When I play for Pakistan with Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, they are in decline. They were great but they're not match-winning bowlers any more. Wasim has not won a match since 1996. So I have to make it all happen on my own."

But he didn't just stop there. He went on to do the trademark Shoaib thing and said, "Imagine if I was playing for Australia with Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie softening them up, then I come on - I'd have got more wickets than anyone ever," he said.

Waqar didn't waste any words with his response: "It might have been better for Pakistan if he had been born in Australia."
Never a dull moment in Pakistan cricket!

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