Consistent selection key to Pak's cricket success: Ex-players

Sidelined Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal have called on Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to be consistent in terms of selection.

Lamenting that players are getting hastily picked and dropped and not getting sufficient time to establish themselves, Salman said, "India shows more consistency in allowing their players to play top level cricket.

The Dawn further quoted him, as saying, "Rohit Sharma's batting average was hardly 25 or 30 but the Indians persisted with him to make Sharma a world class player."

Both emphasised that only performance of players in the domestic season should be the base and criterion for selection, and added that if coaches and selectors focus on that, "our team would never fare badly."

Salman called for batsmen-friendly pitches to be better prepared for Test cricket.

"After you identify a player's potential you have to stick with him, but in Pakistan we often induct players in haste and drop them abruptly too," he said.

Discarded wicket-keeper batsman Kamran said, "In the last three to four years, the Pakistan team has undergone various experiments in batting which at one time had put us under threat of playing pre-qualifiers for the World Cup."

He added, "Why India has remained a top tanking side is because they don't go for frequent changes. They avoid chop and change even if they lose a few matches. India kept faith with Sachin [Tendulkar], [Virender] Sehwag or [Rahul] Dravid till the last and managed to groom [Virat] Kohli, Rohit [Sharma] and [Shikhar] Dhawan."

He quipped that senior players should quit the game and pave the way for young players.