Criticism and constructive criticisms are two different things and that should be a fine line. Constructive criticism is always welcomed as it is a part of the sport and it only doesn’t limit to the sport as there’s room for constructive criticism in every other profession as well.
Pakistan cricketer, Javeria Khan took to her social media to quote, “Those who do not follow women’s cricket in Pakistan, consider it their inalienable right to slam the players if they underperform. Questioning section of the team, the accuracy of shots, playing techniques and approaches, and strategies applied during the game are welcome. Constructive criticism is always healthy, whether relative to women’s or men’s cricket. But restoring to vile comments and attacking players’ private lives is both outrageous and unwarranted. One should first step and walk in another person’s shoes before coming up with sweeping judgements or labelling someone as a failure.
P.S : Teams, athletes, and system do not grow overnight. This is an evolutionary process that takes times. Women’s team needs your support and constructive criticism.”
To whom it may concern ! pic.twitter.com/91FXD70dFP
— Javeria Khan (@ImJaveria) August 4, 2022
When a player takes to his/her social media to put out a few words on criticism it’s clear that they’ve individually or as a whole been targeted and it possibly was at this degree that they couldn’t take it more and put out words to silence “those” few. Pakistan of late have been underperforming and the graph isn’t growing as it should, that’s very clear, but it simply doesn’t give license to anyone to make personal comments and attack those who’ve fought lifestyle, put in hard yards and got to the epitome of representing their nation.
This isn’t the first time that it’s happening in cricket, over the years it’s grown as a common trend for which we’ve somewhere got ourselves to blame for accepting this kind of a trend by sharing a laugh at it. We somewhere have let it grow and have appreciated it in form of memes targeting players on social media where unknowingly we’ve appreciated criticism over constructive criticism.
To stick to Pakistan, early this year during their world cup campaign they underperformed as a side, and back then as well players from Pakistan suffered serious blows on social media which are this bad that they cannot even be mentioned. There’s no doubt as to Pakistan has been underperforming as a side for quite a while, but on the road of criticism, “few” have walked this ahead that they’ve forgotten or neglected facts for the joy of it. For a few facts, regular camps are being held before every series and they had one before Pakistan toured Northern Ireland as well which was a part of their buildup for the Commonwealth Games and also were the most prepared side having played 2 series one at home and the other away coming into the Games.
Yes, despite all of the right processes put in place Pakistan didn’t get the desired result, but that doesn’t give anyone a license to criticize any player and like Javeria Khan mentioned, “Teams, athletes, and systems do not grow overnight.”
Let us appreciate the fact that women of Pakistan take up the sport despite there still being a fairly big portion of the society that doesn’t welcome the move of women playing cricket in the nation which includes former star players as well. With attempts being made to throw racism out of the sport, the same should be the attitude towards criticism as it does create a lot more severe impact on the minds of athletes than we can think sitting on the outside.