It has become a norm now for the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to share dressing room videos on its official social media accounts across platforms. After the Men in Green's win over Bangladesh in a do-or-die T20 World Cup fixture against Bangladesh, which ultimately booked Pakistan's seat in the semi-final, captain Babar Azam and team mentor Matthew Hayden both addressed the members of the squad inside the dressing room. Both videos were shared on PCB's social media handles.
The PCB also posted a video of Babar's speech after Pakistan's defeat against India in the first game of their T20 World Cup campaign.
The country's fast bowling greats, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis seem to be unhappy with the latest trend and have slammed the PCB for sharing clips of the dressing room on social media.
Akram and Younis felt whatever happens inside the change room should be kept confidential and not be highlighted to the world.
"Look I was in place of Babar Azam I would stop the guy making videos because at times some very personal things are said and done and can be embarrassing if leaked out," Akram said on the A Sports channel.
"It is good to allow fans to interact with their favorite players through social media but this is getting too much.
"I don’t think I have seen any other team go to this extent in this World Cup or prior to that. I can understand the desire to increase followers and get views but this too much," he added.
Interestingly, when Pakistan lost to Zimbabwe and was struggling to secure a semi-final spot in the World Cup the PCB's social media unit had gone silent with even the Chairman preferring to remain quiet.
But as soon as Pakistan reached the semifinals after the win over Bangladesh, the PCB resumed releasing videos of the players including travel diaries, pep talks, interviews on social media with even Chairman Ramiz Raja hammering out tweets.
Akram said such video recordings taking place in and outside the dressing room is also distracting for the players.
"There are recordings taking place all the time. Imagine if I am sitting and not knowing someone is recording - a message I want to give my team," he said.
Younis also seconded Akram's views and noted that in the past Pakistan cricket suffered because it had a history of dressing room information and incidents getting leaked.
"I agree 100 per cent with what Wasim has said. Whatever happens inside the dressing room, should stay there," he said.
"This is a problem not just now but earlier as well when a lot of information was leaked to the media - people used to scream, argue, fight. And now you yourself are recording and showing happenings from the dressing room to the world," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
