Unmukt Chand representing USA cricket? THIS Pakistan cricketer gives interesting insight

Former Pakistan cricketer Sami Aslam is looking to represent the USA in cricket, having been left disappointed by the lack of opportunities with the Asian team. Aslam however will enjoy the company of former Under-19 Indian players Unmukt Chand, Smit Patel and Harmeet Singh among others. The 25-year-old confirmed the same in an interview with media portal Pakpassion.net. He further stated that there are many players from South Africa who have played a lot of first-class cricket in their homeland, but are looking at an opportunity in the USA national team.

“30 foreign players have arrived in America recently. A few former Under-19 Indian players have also arrived, including Unmukt Chand, Smit Patel and Harmeet Singh. There are many players from South Africa over here now who have played a lot of First-class cricket in their homeland. Former New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson is also here. The set-up and system are very impressive and well structured. USA Cricket is really putting in a huge effort to improve cricket in America and to move it forward. It will take time for them to reach the higher levels, but the standard of cricket in America is improving fast,” said Aslam as quoted by the Pakistan-based media portal.

“There are trainers and good coaches also out here, some of whom have previously worked in the Indian Premier League. J Arunkumar is the USA Head Coach and he was formerly the Kings XI Punjab’s batting coach in the 2017 IPL season. He has also coached in the Ranji Trophy and he’s an excellent coach,” he added.

Not even 1% regret

The 25-year-old further stated that he did not have an iota of regret with regard to the decision to leave his home nation, in search of a new opportunity.

“Not even 1% regret. I am really happy to be out here in America after being depressed in Pakistan for 2 years. I was in a bad place due to the coaches and events in Pakistan and the way they treated me. I have absolutely no regrets at all and I am very pleased with life at the moment,” he added.

Aslam highlighted a lack of consistent opportunities to those who were worthy, as a major reason behind Pakistan struggling to find solid and reliable Test opening batsmen.

“The biggest problem is that the people they should be backing and giving opportunities to are not allowed to settle and after a couple of low scores they were dropped. Now the selectors speak about giving players proper opportunities, well that wasn’t the case in the past when they would side-line any decent opening batsman if he had two low scores. You will never develop good cricketers if the culture of favouritism isn’t eradicated,” he stated.

“The favourites can fail in 20 matches and still get selected, but the batsmen who you dislike, the minute they fail, they are thrown out of the team. Look at the example of Fawad Alam, they kept on saying he had flaws and wouldn’t pick him. Now where are those faults, Fawad’s still the same player that you ignored for so long,” concluded Aslam.