PCB needs to use services of former players, says Shoaib Akhtar

Lahore, Feb 6:  Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has labelled the U-19 team's semi-final show against India as "immature", saying their cricket board can seek help from former players like him, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan.

Pakistan colts lost to India by 10 wickets to crash out of the World Cup at the semi-final stage.

Pakistan were skittled out for 172 and then it was a cakewalk for centurion Yashasvi Jaiswal who remained unbeaten on 105 with Divyaansh Saxena not out on 59 as India won in 35.2 overs scoring 176.

"Don't lose heart. You need to learn from failures. These are not setbacks, these are opportunities. Well done on reaching the semi-final but the better team won," Akhtar said on his YouTube channel.

Akhtar termed Pakistan's ground fielding as "pathetic and foolish". He lavished praise on Jaiswal, saying he will play for India one day as he has the hunger.

"Jaiswal will go places. He has the hunger to do well. He will definitely play for India. India looked so matured. And that is because they have matured coaches."

India won the U-19 World Cup in 2018 with Rahul Dravid as the head coach. Akhtar cited his example, saying if you want the best to groom your youngsters, you need to spend money on them.

"They got India's best middle-order batsman Rahul Dravid for the coaching role in U-19 team. When you get a big guy, you need to pay him well. Here, Younis Khan went to take the job, the PCB offered him a job, and then they are bargaining with him. '15 lakh nahi, 13 lakh le lo' (take Rs 13 lakh and not Rs 15 lakj). He said 'take it back'. Is that how you treat your stars?

"There is Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan, I am here, just ask us. We will help the team. You think if we were a part of U-19 coaching staff, the team would have performed like this?" said Akhtar.