We should be happy India is doing well: Zaheer Abbas

On the reaction at home: To be honest, the country didn’t have too many hopes for this team anyway. I had spoken to many friends and colleagues before and during the tournament. Most of them felt that Pakistan didn’t have a chance of qualifying for the Super Sixes. That’s why there hasn’t been a big reaction, even though we lost to India.

But there is bound to be some backlash. No one has been sacked yet, but Inzamam has resigned as vice-captain, and Saeed Anwar has retired. But don’t go by the news reports, they are too negative. A bit of infighting, small arguments, keep happening among players. But that doesn’t mean that there’s a war on.

They are together all the time and if they fight, they patch up again. I think it has been blown out of proportion. I don’t know if there is any professional jealousy involved though, but arguments don’t make a difference.

On problems and rebuilding process: Some of the aging players will have to go. I think Pakistan will have to start planning for the next World Cup. I am the chairperson of the junior selection committee, and I see a lot of boys with tremendous potential. I can’t seem to remember names offhand right now, but there are a number of boys who should be given a break right now. They will be a very good team in four years’ time. But we can’t sack the whole team and bring in 14 new boys. The combination is important. We have six, seven, eight players in the team who are or have been captains. It was not the case in our time. We gave long runs to everyone. Why so much chopping and changing of captains and coaches and players?

On the top nations falling early: South Africa, West Indies, England and Pakistan, four of the main nations, fell early. What is the standard of the semi finals now? Countries refused to go here and there, and they dropped points.

This is not done. I would ideally want to see the four best teams in the world playing the semis. There should be heavy penalties on the sides that didn’t travel; and there should be disqualifications. The attitude of some of these countries has robbed the World Cup of its sheen. The ICC will have to revise their policies now, and avoid similar problems cropping up again.

On the future of Indo-Pak cricket: I don’t see anything happening till India wants to play in Pakistan. If India doesn’t want to play in Pakistan, then why should we play in India? But of course, there’s nothing like an India-Pakistan match, and I want to see them playing together. I don’t know if it’s possible, it’s up to India to decide. But I do miss all my Indian friends. We can’t stay in touch because we can’t meet anymore. But I have stayed friends with Gavaskar, Shastri, Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrashekhar…everyone from that generation. We used to applaud each others’ good shots or good balls. It wasn’t cut-throat like now.

On Shahid Afridi sledging issue: Sledging was there in my time also, though mainly from the Australians. They have always been the bad boys. About Afridi, if he has done something wrong he should definitely be punished. It is a bad example for the youngsters. All these cricketers should set the right moral values. How can you start swearing at somebody? It’s a bad example.