Jadeja shocked Hassan Cheema, PCB selector, never played first-class cricket; Akram says 'Stat ka banda kyun chaiye?'
Ajay Jadeja was shocked to learn that one of the members of the five-person committee for the men's team never played a first-class cricket match.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been strongly criticised over the last few days after Pakistan incurred a disappointing group-stage exit in the 2025 Champions Trophy, implying they have now failed to reach the knockout stage in all their three ICC ODI tournaments, besides a shocking first-round exit in 2024 T20 World Cup. As the criticism began to centre around the selectors for picking a poor combination for the Champions Trophy, former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja was shocked to learn that one of the members of the five-person committee for the men's team never played a first-class cricket match.
Following a home Test defeat against England in early October last year, PCB restructured the selection committee, adding the likes of Aleem Dar, Aaqib Javed, and Azhar Ali to the panel, which earlier comprised Asad Shafiq and Hassan Cheema. It was the latter that Jadeja was shocked to learn about during an interaction on Sports Central with Wasim Akram.
"Are you telling me a Pakistan selector has not played First-Class cricket?" Jadeja reacted after Akram revealed that he learnt that one can only apply as a national selector for the BCCI if the candidate has played a minimum number of First-Class matches.
"I'm already ready," he joked.
For the unversed, the person referred to here is Cheema, who was added to the committee as an analyst. He initially served as a Strategy Manager at the PSL franchise in Islamabad United for eight years before being recruited by the PCB in 2023 and was eventually elevated to the role of a selector in October 2024.
'Why do you need a statistician?'
Akram lashed out at PCB for appointing a statistician as a selector. "Stat ka banda kyun chaiye aapko (Why do you need a statistician)?
Jadeja added to Akram's remark saying that stats never give a clearer picture and that selectors should never pick and drop players based on purely numbers.
"If you are selecting players on stats, you are not selecting, but rejecting, because whatever you are picking is noy based on stats. A selector means that he sees something in a player. Look at these two people sitting here (Akram and Waqar Younis), they may not have had the best stats when they started, but it's about where you finish. You have to see what you are going to work with
