NEW DELHI: Legendary fast bowler Wasim Akram minced no words, after Pakistan‘s crushing 7-wicket defeat at the hands of India in the 2023 World Cup, while lashing out at team director Mickey Arthur for making bizarre comments after the team’s heart-breaking loss at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday.
Arthur said that it did not feel like an ICC event and the crowd, DJ and the environment were not neutral.”Look, I would 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 at the post-match press conference.
“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,” Arthur added.
Akram lashed out at Arthur’s comment while analysing the game for Pakistan-based sports channel A Sports and asked for some solid answers instead of random stuff.
“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. You think you can get away with this? You can’t, unfortunately,” Akram said on the TV debate.
Arthur said that it did not feel like an ICC event and the crowd, DJ and the environment were not neutral.”Look, I would 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 at the post-match press conference.
“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,” Arthur added.
Akram lashed out at Arthur’s comment while analysing the game for Pakistan-based sports channel A Sports and asked for some solid answers instead of random stuff.
“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. You think you can get away with this? You can’t, unfortunately,” Akram said on the TV debate.
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“Winning and losing is a part of the game, but we want to know why we lost and what went wrong,” Akram added.
