T20 World Cup: Former captain furious over Pakistan's exit, held ICC responsible, also raised questions on the system

Pakistan's participation in the 2024 T20 World Cup has ceased. Babar Azam's side has been eliminated from contention for the Super-8. Today, the team will face Ireland in the final encounter of the group round. This match will be place in Florida. Meanwhile, former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif has issued a strong remark over the team's elimination from the event. He blamed the defeat on the International Cricket Council.

In actuality, the match between America and Ireland in Florida was canceled owing to inclement weather. America benefited from the match's cancellation, and following India from Group A, it became the second team to advance to the Super Eight. At the same time, it had the biggest impact on the 2009 champion team Pakistan, whose journey came to a halt in the group stage itself. This is very disappointing for Pakistan as the team was the runner-up in 2022. Not only this, but it also holds the record of reaching the semi-finals the most times in the men's T20 World Cup.

Surprisingly, while the world is lashing out at Pakistani players for their poor performance, Rashid Latif is supporting them. He has blamed the pitch for this. Giving the example of Virat Kohli, the former captain said, "You cannot blame the Pakistani players for everything. They performed well, but the conditions of the pitch neutralized their efforts. They should have won both the matches against the USA and India, but the circumstances were out of their control. It has happened that it has become difficult to score runs. See, even a batsman like Virat Kohli is not able to score runs."

Pakistan did not have a good start in this T20 World Cup and had to face defeat first against the USA and then against India on Sunday. The US defeated Pakistan in the Super Over, while India defeated the arch-rival team by six runs in a thrilling match played in New York. The Pakistan team emerged as the champion in 2009, but since then it has never been able to win the title of this tournament. The performance of the Pakistan team was also disappointing in the ODI World Cup played in India last year and it could not make it to the semi-finals now the team could not progress beyond the group stage in the T20 World Cup as well.

The former player further said, "Individual half-centuries are not too many. No team has scored a half-century against a team like Afghanistan. If a batsman scores a half-century then the team mostly wins. Rishabh Pant scored 42 runs and India defeated Pakistan. The conditions are not ideal for the World Cup. The Pakistan team was defeated by the US in the Super Over and Pakistan could not achieve the target of 120 runs against India."