20th January 2010

 

Having been on the wrong end of a 3-0 test whitewash and now being 4-0 down in the one day series, you wouldn't expect the Pakistani cricketers currently in Perth to be hardly the most jovial characters at this moment in time.

The tone from Salman Butt was one of disappointment when he spoke to PakPassion.net a short while ago. He was very candid and yet forthright in his views and his comments displayed a certain amount of sympathy for the Pakistani cricket fan.

"Pakistan is a cricket loving nation, the people eat, sleep and breathe cricket and I feel that as a team we have let our fans down during the current tour of Australia. I know what it is like to wake up through the night and watch your team lose again and again. I know what it feels like, because as a youngster I too was a cricket fan watching my heroes in action and its heartbreaking when your team loses" stated Salman.

Salman who topped the batting averages in the test series for Pakistan scoring 280 runs at an average of 46.66, that included one century and one half century, didn't want to make any excuses for himself or his team mates. "Australia is always a tough tour for any team and yes in the past our teams have lost here, but we can't use that as an excuse for our defeats on this tour. We have simply not performed well and have not been good enough".

Butt feels that the tour of Australia should be used by the Pakistani players as one to learn from and to utilise to improve aspects of their game that need working upon. "We all need to learn from this experience and to look at our mistakes and to use the tour to become better players in future. Nobody on the tour can walk away and say they can't improve aspects of their game. We all need to analyse our individual performances and look to improve our standard of cricket".

Butt and his colleagues will be looking for a consolation victory in the 5th one day international in Perth tomorrow but with the Australian team in good shape and looking formiddable, they know the task won't be easy. "Australia are the best team in the world" added Butt, "they are very tough to play against in their own conditions, but I thimnk we could have put up a better show on this tour and I'm hopeful that we can end the tour on a high with a couple of morale boosting victories".