Pakistan players not affected by ‘no pay for five months’: coach

KOLKATA (AFP): Coach Grant Bradburn on Monday shrugged off claims his players haven’t been paid for five months, insisting the squad was determined to rescue their faltering World Cup campaign.

Pakistan are on the verge of a group stage exit at the tournament and need to defeat Bangladesh on Tuesday to preserve any slim hopes of making the semi-finals.

As well as four defeats in six games so far, Pakistan’s World Cup journey has been plagued by arguments over pay and delays in agreements over central contracts.

On Monday, three players in the squad confirmed to AFP that they had not been paid.

“In terms of the noise around the team, look, playing for Pakistan and working within this team is a huge privilege,” said Bradburn on Monday.

“To prepare ourselves and give our best are the things that we focus on, the things within our control and there are great expectations and we’re desperate to make our nation proud.”

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said that contracts have been sent to India and the players have signed. That should pave the way for payments to be organised, it claimed.

Former New Zealand all-rounder Bradburn said the team is hurting from their woeful World Cup where wins over the Netherlands and Sri Lanka have been followed by defeats to India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa.

“We’re in a position that we didn’t want to be,” said Bradburn whose team also has a poor net run-rate of -0.38.

“We were determined at this stage of the tournament to be in control of our destiny but we’re not.

“That hurts the group and all we can do now is control what we can control, and that is prepare well for three remaining pool games and then allow fate to be hopefully leaning on us in terms of our semi-final hopes from there.”

The financial headaches for the squad are compounded by them being banned from taking part in the Indian Premier League, the lucrative T20 franchise league that has made countless stars from other countries instant millionaires.

However, Bradburn said that the imbalance in financial riches is not an issue. “We don’t feel isolated or intimidated by that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bradburn refused to criticise umpire Alex Wharf for turning down a leg-before decision against South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi off Haris Rauf with just eight runs needed for victory in the team’s last game.

A review ended up declaring the decision as “umpire’s call” before South Africa pulled off a heart-stopping one-wicket win in Chennai on Friday.

“The simple answer to that (umpire’s decision) is that we try to focus on the things we can control. And look, the umpires control the game and those things are unfortunate for us, but that’s part of the game.” Bradburn said.

Bangladesh will be a tough challenge even though the Tigers have lost five out of six and will definitely be eliminated if they lose again on Tuesday.

“We respect Bangladesh hugely,” said Bradburn.

Pakistan have won 33 one-dayers and lost just five against Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh have won four of the teams’ last six clashes.

“They’re a quality group of cricketers but we are well prepared for them,” said Bradburn.