Imran blames ‘political pressure’ for dismal state of Pakistan cricket

Former Pakistan cricket great and chief of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Imran Khan, on Sunday blamed “political pressure” and “cronyism” for the international team’s consistent poor performances.

In an outpour on Twitter, Imran said Prime Minister Nawaz had “perfected the art of cronyism” and had appointed an “election fixer” to “fix” Pakistan cricket.

The former captain said “the reason cricket has, unlike elsewhere, failed to become an institution in Pak is because here PM appoints PCB chief.”

Imran’s solution to Pakistan’s woes is to “insulate” cricket from “political pressure.”

He also repeated his earlier demands to revamp the domestic cricket structure to improve players’ “temperament” and “technique.”

Imran proposed a domestic cricket circuit on the lines of Australia, where all talent is “concentrated in six regional teams” and ‘all departments instead of fielding their own teams should support the regional teams.

The PTI chief also stressed that funds be directed to more productive uses instead of “wasting money on senseless expenditures.” He said Pakistan was in a dire need of more cricket grounds.