UAE captain Rohan Mustafa has hit back at former head coach Aaqib Javed, saying that it was unfair to talk negatively about the national team.
Last week, Javed called UAE’s loss to Hong Kong in last month’s Asia Cup Qualifier final – a result that denied them a place in the showpiece event – as ‘unacceptable’. The 46-year-old also added the failure ‘showed there is a problem which must be attended urgently’.
When Javed left in May 2016 to take up a role with PSL franchise Lahore Qalandars, the UAE initially struggled. But under Dougie Brown’s reign since April 2017, they have become a competitive force in Associate cricket as well as registering their first victory over a Test nation against Zimbabwe and retaining ODI status until 2022.
But Mustafa expressed his disappointment to read the words from the 1992 World Cup winner, who guided the UAE to the 2014 World Twenty20, 2015 World Cup and 2016 Asia Cup in his four-year tenure.
Aaqib Javed was critical of former team UAE
“To be honest, it was wrong comments to say from a former coach,” said the 30-year-old. “I am not against him in any way because he helped me a lot in my development and during tough times. It wasn’t just me but he helped a lot of the other players in the squad. He made us improve as players. When you’re representing a country and you are captain of the country, you have more responsibility than other players. I think it was disappointing to read those comment because our performances recently haven’t been that bad.
“Cricket is a sport where you win and lose games. Hong Kong played well against India (in the Asia Cup). Does that mean India are not a good side? It wasn’t a good comment from him but I mentioned on Twitter, that he built the team and we are now working hard to achieve more targets.”
I disagree with the comments from our former coach.We r continously building on the standards he had set under the guidance of @dougie1brown.1bad day at office effected by rain isnt enough to judge the standards of players who are continously playing franchise cricket worldwide! https://t.co/8XTxxVDXCW
— Rohan Mustafa (@rohanmustafa88) October 5, 2018
