Imran Khan criticises Pakistan board, bemoans cricket structure

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan has expressed frustration over Pakistan’s 3-0 series defeat against Bangladesh and lamented the country’s poor cricket structure.

The Tigers ravaged Pakistan by eight wickets to complete a clinical sweep of the ODI series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday.

While Bangladesh are euphoric over the historic win, the Pakistan team is being subjected to an autopsy in search of things that went wrong.

The cricketer turned politician spoke in an interview with Geo News to promote his candidacy for the Tehreek-e-Insaf party in an upcoming by-election in Karachi.

Imran, arguably the best cricketer Pakistan have ever produced, held ‘nepotism’ in the Pakistan Cricket Board responsible for 1992 World Cup champion’s slump.

“Pakistan’s cricket will not improve as long as there are people in the cricket board who have come through nepotism and without any merit.

“Sadly, the people in our cricket board don’t have any knowledge of cricket,” the 62-year-old said.

“I never thought Pakistan would lose to Bangladesh 3-0 and drop to number eight in the ODI Rankings.”

Imran claimed he had been suggesting a revamp in the country’s cricket structure for the last 30 years.

“The best batsman of Pakistan at the moment is Misbah-ul-Haq and he was given chance at the age of 34. Mohammad Irfan was selected at the age of 30. At these ages players are normally thinking about retirement.

“It illustrates how poor the system of cricket has become in Pakistan.”