Salman Butt hits back at Ramiz Raja for his ‘negativity by media’ remark

Since the Asia Cup 2022, Pakistan has been dealing with the middle-order crisis in the T20I format. During and post the tournament, the team has been seen struggling whenever skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan lose their wickets early. With the 20-20 World Cup 2022 right around the corner, this issue has started concerning Pakistani fans. After all, two out of five games will be played against India and South Africa.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairperson Ramiz Raja recently rubbished the facts by saying that the media is spreading negativity. In reply, former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt has hit back at the 1992 World Cup winner. The former said that the players aren’t afraid of losing their places in the team because they know the talent pool is shrinked.

“We squeezed the competition hoping that quality will emerge now. What happened? The players thought we will not lose the spots (since the teams are less). The number of players became less and the standards also fell,” Butt said.

“Here, the people are stubborn in making decisions. They didn’t care about the impact it would have on the quality of cricket. We don’t have a middle-order, now they are accepting it. But what can we do now?”

Don’t say that media spreads negativity: Salman Butt

Furthermore, Butt has said that Ramiz shouldn’t say that the media is spreading negativity. The former said because of Raja’s decisions, the talent pool has shrinked badly.

“You were saying that quality system will come. Ab aap gussa naa karein media pe, ab ye naa kahein ki hamein back karein. Ye naa kahein ki aap log negativity phailaate hain. Ham log negativity phailaate hain, aapne toh player hi khatm kar diye hain. Iss tarah ke kaam kiye hain ki players hi squeeze ho gaye hain. (Don’t be angry at the media, don’t ask us for your backing. Don’t say that we spread negativity; you have finished the players. Your actions have squeezed our talent pool),” said Butt.