Imran congratulates women team, disappointed by men-in-green

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Sunday congratulated Pakistan's women cricket team on their World Twenty20 victory against India, but said he was disappointed by the dismal performance by the men in green against India at Kolkata's Eden Gardens.

The Pakistan women team defeated India by two runs on the Duckworth Lewis method to register their first victory in the WT20 tournament.

But poor selection and the all-round superiority of hosts India saw the Pakistani men lose by six wickets at Kolkata's Eden Gardens in the most anticipated match of the tournament.

Khan, who captained the Pakistani cricket team to a memorable ODI World Cup victory in 1992, had traveled to Kolkata on Saturday to deliver a pep talk to the men-in-green in hopes they would repeat the same result his side had achieved when he last played at the venue.

But the Pakistani team, led by skipper Shahid Afridi, failed to impress the former cricketing legend.

"Want to congratulate our Women's team for their win over India. This somewhat mitigates the disappointment over our boys' loss last night,” said the cricketer-turned-politician in messages posted on Twitter today.

Khan blamed the poor domestic cricket structure for Pakistan's failure to bring up local cricketing talent to the international level.

"Unless we revamp our cricket structure at home, the gulf between Pakistan & India in cricket will continue to widen to our disadvantage," said Khan, pointing to India's unbeaten 11-0 record against Pakistan in the World Cup.

The former cricket hero said Pakistan had immense potential but the existing domestic structure of the sport was unable to hone and leverage the fresh talent properly.

“We have so much cricketing talent in Pakistan but sadly our present structures are unable to polish and coalesce this talent,” he said.