There is nepotism at domestic level in Pakistan Cricket: Mohammad Asif

Tainted Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif has said that there is an existence of nepotism in the domestic circuit and added that the players with no notable performance were continuously given chances.

“After participating in domestic cricket after my return I realised that there was a lot of favouritism and nepotism at play. Players were being picked based on who they knew rather than how good they were. Guys who were scoring 25 runs per innings were being labelled as great hopes and heroes. Bowlers with no performances were being given chance after chance, it was depressing and I knew people were trying to drop a hint to me to give up playing,” Asif was quoted as saying by HT via PakPassion.

He further added that after his ban was over, Asif wanted to return back to cricket while also thinking about alternate roles such as coaching.

“I wanted to continue playing, but I started to think about alternatives to playing and focussed on coaching and I was asked to go to Afghanistan for a coaching stint with their young pace bowlers in 2016. However, the security situation meant that I had to decline the offer which was unfortunate as I was really looking forward to working with those youngsters,” he added.

The right-arm bowler was one of the three Pakistan players apart from the then captain Salman Butt and Mohammad Amir to be slapped with a ban for being involved in a spot-fixing scandal in England in the year 2010.

He was banned for 7 years. Asif made his international debut for Pakistan in 2005 and picked up 106 wickets in 23 Tests and had 46 scalps to his name in 38 ODIs. The seamer was also capped 11 times in the shortest format and bagged 13 wickets during the course.

He hasn't made a return to the Pakistan national side since getting banned.

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