Legendary fast bowler Wasim Akram has lashed out at the Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur for his derogatory comments in the post-match press conference.
After Pakistan lost to India at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday, 14 October, Arthur came out after the match and said that the India vs Pakistan match did not feel like an ICC event.
Arthur said that the crowd, DJ, and the environment at large were not neutral, but he was not going to use that as an excuse.
“Look, I’d be lying if I said… It didn’t seem like an ICC event, tonight, to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event. I didn’t hear Dil Dil Pakistan coming through the microphones too often tonight,”
Mickey Arthur said.
“So yes, that does play a role, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse because for us, it was about living the moment, it was about the next ball and it was about how we were going to combat the Indian, the Indian players tonight,”
he added.
Wasim Akram, who was witnessing the game for Pakistan-based channel A Sports lashed out at the statement and demanded answers from the coach Arthur.
“I don’t know what to make of this statement. Tell us what your plans were against Kuldeep Yadav, that’s what we want to hear, not just random stuff. Do you think you can get away with this? You can’t, unfortunately,”
Furious Akram said after the match.
Sitting on the same panel, Moin Khan added that the coach was trying to distract the audience when he should be focusing on his job.
“He is trying to divert now that hearts are aching. He is trying to touch an emotional chord. I think he should concentrate on his profession and not on something else. He is right in what he said, but as a coach, he should not be saying these things,”
said Moin Khan.
“Winning and losing is a part of the game, but we want to know why we lost and what went wrong,”
Wasim concluded.
Well, as we all witnessed Pakistan failed to put up resistance against the Indian bowling line-up in the latter half of the innings. From 155/2, Pakistan were bowled out for just 191 runs in the first innings. India came out to bat aggressively and defeated Pakistan with a little less than 20 overs remaining in the game.
