After a disappointing show at in the recent One Day series against Australia, Najam Sethi, chairman of the Executive Committee PCB, reiterated that the national team still remains the best team within Pakistan.
“Yes, we might have fallen down to the 8th position as far as ODIs are concerned, one step lower than Bangladesh,” he said. “But people often overlook how the national team is still better than all other teams within Pakistan.”
“Are we down to 7th ranking in T20 cricket? Yes,” he continued. “But will this negative press ever point out that we can beat hollow the teams of Sui Northern, Wapda and PTCL?”
“Have we slipped down to 6th position in Test cricket, a format where we, in this very year, held the Test Mace? Yes,” he said. “But you put together a team of the best players in Gulbahar Colony, Peshawar, including that mechanic Shafiqullah, and our boys will beat them.”
“It is this negativity that has led to this performance of our team, not any lack of effort on part of the boys or the Board.”
The press conference was brought to an immediate end upon news that Gulbahar-11 had, in fact, beaten the national team with 4 wickets to spare on a Saturday morning match.
“A big victory for us,” said Haider Shinwari, captain of Gulbahar-11. “We won despite Shafiqullah not playing because he was busy at the workshop.”
