Cricket is a team game, stop blaming captain: Misbah-ul-Haq

The culture of blaming the captain for everything must stop in the country as cricket is a team game, Pakistan's Test and ODI skipper Misbah-ul-Haq has said.

"One thing should be clear that the captain alone is not responsible for a defeat or victory," Misbah told reporters in Lahore yesterday.

Misbah's comments came apparently as a show of support for his teammate and T20 captain Mohammad Hafeez, who has come under criticism after Pakistan lost to Australia by 94 runs in the third and final T20 international in Dubai.

Misbah also said that the focus should be on the performance of the entire team and not on a single individual for any poor show of the team.

"One individual's bad performance or mistake should not be singled out, the entire team must be focused upon," he added.

Misbah, 38, himself has been criticised after he lost his second successive one-day series recently to Australia.

Pakistan had also lost the ODI series in Sri Lanka this year.

"When the team wins it gets the credit and this should also be the case when we lose a match," Misbah said.

The senior batsman is no longer part of the national T20 squad having been dropped as captain and player earlier this year by the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Misbah also felt that spinners would reap rich dividends in Sri Lankan conditions during the T20 World Cup and the presence of a few good spinners would give Pakistan an edge over most of the other teams.

He also advised the players to learn from the mistakes they made in the final T20 match against Australia.

"In cricket we need to learn from any situation as we have quality players in batting and bowling. It is all in the mind and nothing else," Misbah said.

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