Waqar was a total failure as head coach: Kamran Akmal
Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal has lashed out at former head coach Waqar Younis for causing a lot of damage to the country’s cricket and failing to guide the national side to success during his two separate stints as the head coach.
In an interview to a TV channel, Kamran revealed that Waqar’s enthusiasm to ‘experiment’ with the players and sidelining important players had put the Pakistan team lagging behind by two to three years.
“With due respect, Waqar was a failure as coach and he caused lot of damage to Pakistan cricket. In his enthusiasm to experiment and sideline established players, he put the national team back by two to three years,” the Dawn quoted Kamran as saying.
It should be noted that this is the first time that a current Pakistan player has openly criticised Waqar for being an abject failure in his two separate tenures as head coach in 2010-2011 and 2014- 2016.
The wicketkeeper-batsman, who appeared in 53 Tests and 157 ODIs for Pakistan, said that Waqar certainly had issues with some players and that he also had no plans to take the national side forward. “I don’t know the reasons but Waqar certainly had issues with some players. He had no plans on how to take Pakistan forward. An example was when he went to the 2015 World Cup and asked Younis Khan to open the innings and then sidelined Sarfraz Ahmed until late in the tournament,” Kamran said.
Although Kamran admitted that Waqar was a great player, he insisted that the fast bowling great was a `total failure` as a coach.