It is embarrassing: Why PCB Chief Ramiz Raja is miffed with his own men?

“It is embarrassing for us, especially when you have a cricketer as a chairman,” Pakistan Cricket Board chief Ramiz Raja said on Friday. Former Pakistan national captain and currently holding the most important chair in Pakistan cricket, Ramiz Raja, has finally addressed the elephant in the room.

While Ramiz Raja is locking horns with the world’s richest cricket body, i.e., BCCI, to host Asia Cup 2022, his men have let him down as they failed miserably to build a competitive pitch in the country. As a result, the surface at Rawalpindi surface has become a matter of ache for the PCB chief.

Australia vs Pakistan Test match at Rawalpindi Stadium, earlier this year, produced more than 1,100 runs at the expense of just 14 wickets, hence; the surface was slapped with a poor rating and received demerit points from the ICC.

Now months after, Rawalpindi’s surface has been exposed once again. The first day of the 1st Test between England and Pakistan saw enormous runs being scored by the England batters, followed by Pakistan batters enjoying a similar fate on the surface.

Four of England’s batters – Harry Brook (153), Zak Crawley (122), Ben Duckett (107) and Ollie Pope (108) – smashed centuries on Day 1 of 1st Test. Meanwhile, Pakistan openers – Abdullah Shafique (114) and Imam-ul-Haq (121) too joined the party.

“This is not good for advert. We are better cricketing nation than this. We live in the dark ages of pitches in Pakistan. They are not exposed in T20 and 50 overs but they are in Test cricket.”

“We lived in an apartheid situation where teams didn’t come here. Pakistan players have played 70 Tests without playing here. It’s an achievement that we managed to stay afloat,” Ramiz Raja told reporters.

The PCB Chair further claimed they had tried everything, from bringing in a curator from abroad to buying foreign soil. “But have said that I have never seen batting like England’s on Day 1 either,” Ramiz Raja concluded.