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Javed Miandad on Saturday took a swipe at the senior players and blamed them for the team's poor performance on the recently concluded tour of New Zealand.

The maestro, talking on telephone from Lahore, said none of the senior players realized their responsibilities and instead portrayed him as the trouble-maker.

I hate to say this but some of the senior players held secret meetings till late in the evenings. There were players who also discouraged the junior boys. But the fact of the matter is none of the so-called seniors accepted their responsibilities. They didn't carry the burden of the team on their shoulders which they were obligated to do. "In fact, half of the players returned home injured after the one-day series," Miandad said three days after being removed as coach, adding: "I don't know if they were really injured."

The 45-year-old Miandad compared Pakistan's senior players with veterans like Sachin Tendulkar, Steve Waugh, Shaun Pollock, Muttiah Muralitharan and Michael Atherton.

"They are the players who raise their hands when the team is in trouble and bail the squad out by utilizing all their experiences. I don't recall these players failing as consistently as our senior players fail. A man doesn't become senior by age or by the number of matches played. The simple description of a senior player is one who comes to the rescue of the team at the right time," he said.

He asserted that the senior players gave him a cold-shoulder treatment in New Zealand and didn't listen to his advice. "If the players are adamant in ignoring the coach and his advice, there is little the coach can do. No matter how many coaches the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appoints, if the players do not change their attitude, the team will never succeed."

Miandad asserted that the players were against him because "they don't like my sincerity, honesty, dedication, patriotism and commitment. My priority has always been the country and not the money" he contended. "If I am handsomely paid by the board, it is because I deserve it." "But for some players, it seems that money is more important than the national interest which hurts me badly," the former captain said.

Miandad said if the players thought they had fooled him in the five-match one-day international series which Pakistan lost 3-2, "they were sadly mistaken. I have played cricket and know what was happening out there in the centre. "And that's why I demand the that the PCB hold an internal inquiry to probe as to what went wrong. They have the tour data in the computer while footage of the matches are easily available". "They (PCB) will find enough circumstantial evidence that the players played below-par," Miandad said.

Pakistan won the first match, lost the second, won the third before losing the last two, including the decider at Wellington where they failed to defend 285.

Miandad recalled instances when his instructions were not given due consideration. "When the players were told to play with heads down, they threw away their wickets by holing out in the deep. When they were advised to bowl straight, they bowled everywhere except stumps. They gifted away cheap runs with a number of no-balls and wides. "I mean, no one can do anything if the team doesn't want to win," he remarked.

Miandad said his heart goes out for PCB chairman Lt Gen Tauqir Zia who has been doing every thing possible for the welfare of the players but is being let down by them.

Miandad clarified that the general wanted him to go to Sharjah as coach "but I backed out because I could sense that I was not welcome in the dressing room and the players didn't like my presence. I have been forced to open up because I am sickened, by the stuff I have been reading in the newspapers which have characterized me as the bad boy of Pakistan cricket."

© Dawn