Gulbadin Naib alleges senior Afghanistan players deliberately underperformed in World Cup: Reports

Afghanistan finished their World Cup campaign with no wins and nine losses, the worst record among all the ten teams.

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Gulbadin Naib, extreme right, was named as the captain of the Afghanistan ODI side less than two months before the World Cup in place of long-time captain Asghar Afghan (File Photo)

Gulbadin Naib, who was deputized to be the Afghanistan ODI captain for a very brief period which included the recently concluded World Cup, has said that there were some senior players in the side who deliberately let the team down in the tournament, a senior Afghan journalist has alleged.

“We depend mostly on seniors in @cricketworldcup but they were deliberately not performing,not giving attention to me,they were laughing instead of being sad after defeats & even not looking at me when asked to bowl”quoted by sport journalist @wasilwesal from ex captain @GbNaib pic.twitter.com/fI9QDSiueD

— M.ibrahim Momand (@IbrahimReporter) July 21, 2019

“We depend mostly on seniors in World Cup, but they were deliberately not performing, not giving attention to me, they were laughing instead of being sad after defeats & even not looking at me when asked to bowl,” Naib has allegedly been quoted as saying.

After Naib was named the ODI captain in April, there were many fans who decried his lack of leadership experience and the timing of the decision to replace long-time captain Asghar Afghan. Established players Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi were among those who slammed the timing of the decision to change the captaincy.

“With just months to go for such a mega event like World Cup, changing the captain will cause uncertainty and also team morale will be affected,” Rashid Khan had tweeted.

Afghanistan suffered a miserable campaign in the World Cup, losing all their nine matches and finishing with no points at the bottom of the ten-team table.