Pakistan cricketers desperate to bring joy to the nation, says coach Grant Bradburn amid poor World Cup campaign

Pakistan coach Grant Bradburn believes that despite their horrendous performance in the World Cup, Pakistan players will not be defined by the four losses that they have suffered on the trot and or staring at an early exit from the competition in which they were expected to qualify at least for the semifinal round.

Pakistan are in a desperate situation to make it to the semifinals which nearly looks impossible given that they have suffered four consecutive defeats in the World Cup and are yet to face strong teams such as South Africa and New Zealand, apart from Bangladesh whom they are playing on Tuesday.

It has been a very embarrassing World Cup for Pakistan in which not only their players have failed miserably on the field, the off field drama with the Pakistan Cricket Board also putting up a show that has been ridiculed at the world stage as well as by former players in the country. 

“We are desperate to bring joy to our nation. We are desperate to make our nation very proud of this cricket team. And we are also realistic in the knowledge that we haven’t put all departments of our game together over the last four games but four losses does not define who we are as players, as coaches or a team,”

said Grant Bradburn, as reported by Cricinfo.   

“So we’re determined now to focus on what we can control and that is putting our best on the park in these last three games and then leaving that to fate as – to determine the remainder of the tournament for Pakistan.”

Grant Bradburn said Pakistan players will not be intimidated by the fact that they do not get to play in the Indian Premier League or even against India regularly in international cricket, given that most of them are playing in India for the first time and do not have any knowledge of the conditions that have largely been in favour of batsmen in the competition.

“No, we don’t feel isolated or intimidated by that,”

Bradburn said.

“Mickey [Arthur] and I, when we took over this team in April, six months ago, we recognised that the team was playing a gear or two below where we wanted the team to be playing in terms of the brand, because we know the brand of cricket that is winning against quality teams is a more dynamic brand than perhaps, we were playing. So, we set a new course in April this year,”

said Grant Bradburn. 

Grant Bradburn said the fact that Pakistan started decorations only six months ago for the World Cup and not for years when teams usually start, what is perhaps the reason why they have performed so poorly in this World Cup.

“So, it hasn’t been a big lead-in to this major tournament for us. Ideally preparation for a tournament like this starts four years ago. We started six months ago and changed direction in the way that we want to play the game of cricket , especially the one-day brand. We’ve shown some positive signs of that over the last six months, and as I’ve mentioned, during this tournament, we’re very proud of some of the performances that we’ve put on the park.

The Pakistan coach was confident that his team will be able to pull off some strong performances towards the end of the league stage of the World Cup as they are under tremendous pressure following their overall poor performances across departments.

“It’s taking a little bit longer than we were hoping, but we want to play a dynamic brand that matches the challenge of the conditions we’re playing in. So, this tournament is foreign condition for us,”  

he said. 

“None of our players have played here before. Every venue is a new one, including this one. So, we’ve done our homework meticulously on our opposition, on our venues that we’re playing at, and we’re prepared very, very well for each and every encounter,”

Grant Bradburn said. 

The statement from Grant Bradburn was certainly in contradiction with what Pakistani captain Babar Azam said before the tournament, but he claimed that conditions in Indian Pakistan or just about Singh and despite their inexperience, the players will not feel any difference.

“But the reality is that each and every venue is a new one for us and we don’t feel disadvantaged at all in terms of the knowledge, the quality, the skill, the backing that we have for this team of cricketers,”

the Pakistan coach said.