Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali is not a man known for mincing his words and in an interview with PakPassion.net ; Basit provided his usual insight and strong opinions.

by Usama Ahmed

20 November 2010

 Former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali is not a man known for mincing his words and in an interview with PakPassion.net ; Basit provided his usual candid insight and strong opinions.

Basit - who has represented Pakistan on 69 occasions - stated that Pakistan should refuse to participate in the upcoming World Cup if Shoaib Malik and Kamran Akmal were not allowed to participate in the prestigious tournament due to be held in the sub continent next year. “Put simply, Pakistan should boycott the World Cup if Kamran Akmal and Shoaib Malik are not allowed to participate by external sources."

Basit Ali was very complimentary of the current team manager, Intikhab Alam. Intikhab has been in and around the Pakistan cricket team for a long time, holding various roles within the setup. After the controversial tour of England, it was felt that strong discipline was needed and Intikhab has recently implemented strict rules on the players in order to maintain discipline. One rule that has been implemented wihout fail by Intikhab is the issue of a curfew on the team during the current tour of the UAE ; leading to three players [Zulqarnain Haider, Shahzaib Hasan and Abdur Rehman] being fined.

“Intikhab is an excellent choice as the team manager. He is very good at handling the guys.” During a time where not much of Pakistan’s administrative side of cricket is going well – Basit Ali found Intikhab Alam’s work efficient and effective. 

Another person in need of support at the moment, or so it seems, is Umar Akmal. A young batsman that has been rightly or wrongly criticised by the vast majority of Pakistani fans. Many critics have felt that Umar Akmal is not patient enough at the crease and is always prone to poor shot selection, but former selector Basit disagreed. 

“Umar Akmal needs be persisted with; he is a very talented player. Don’t look at the shot he gets out to – these things happen in cricket. People who are criticising him now would be praising him if he would have hit the same ball for six.”

The support for youth within the team did not end with Umar Akmal. Basit heaped praise on another young up and coming batsman, Asad Shafiq. Shafiq has been showing a tremendous amount of promise in the limited overs format of the game with an improving average of 23.60 after 10 matches and one half-century already to his name. 

“Asad is a good player, but he should play his natural game. The team management, coaches and captain need to give him confidence, as at the moment he seems a little restricted."

Basit was also candid when it came to describing the man who he feels should be captain for the World Cup. The name Basit Ali explicitly labelled was that of Younus Khan – a veteran of 207 ODI matches and a batting average of 32.48 in the fifty over format. 

Younus has made an inspired comeback to international colours, with a match saving century on the last day of the drawn Dubai Test against South Africa, and Basit feels that Younus - ahead of current incumbent Shahid Afridi - is the man who the PCB should be looking to lead the side in the World Cup.

“If Pakistan want to do well in the World Cup and look to lift the trophy, then they should look to appoint a man who has already lead them to World Cup glory. In my opinion, Younus should be made captain and asked to mould a side for the World Cup”.