Pakistan Cricket has made a habit of wasting talent. There are countless culprits; a poor system, corruption, incompetence, and to an extent the failure of many talented players to take control of their destiny.

In my quest to navigate my way into cricket I use the interviews available at pakpassion to better understand the intangible qualities of players. You can learn a lot about the way a player will react in certain situations when you have a better understanding of his personality. With the series against Australia coming to a close I started to think about the current crop of players. As I perused through the names I lamented at the wasted talent. Watching Ahmed Shehzad this series reminded me of the way I felt when Imran Nazir first burst onto the scene. You could feel that you were watching a once in a generation type player.

The departure of players to the ICL has only reaffirmed the amount of talent Pakistan has on hand. As we saw three talented but inconsistent openers depart the scene, Nasir Jamshed, Khalid Latif, Khurram Manzoor, Umar Amin, Azhar Ali, and Ahmed Shehzad emerged. If you bring the ICL players back, you have 9 quality openers including Yasir Hameed.

In the middle order we've wasted the likes of Faisal Iqbal, Hasan Raza, Bazid Khan, and Naved Latif by selecting them at the wrong time. More importantly we've selected them without any real plan. The players are certainly culpable for their performances, but the fact of the matter is that the board has hindered their growth.

The crux of what I'm saying lies in my belief that will all of our problems we still have talent. Although I vehemently disagree with the selection of Mohammad Aamer and Shahzaib Hasan, they demonstrate the ample talent available.

Living in America and watching the way sports is conducted on a daily basis I find that cricket administrations have no clue. Even former players who have played the game. Younis Khan was referring to Fawad Alam as an all rounder. Fawad Alam is a middle order batsman who happens to bowl a few overs of left arm orthodox. Jonathan Agnew recently compared Graham Onions to Glenn McGrath. You would think people around the game would know more, but unfortunately time and again they prove otherwise. Rameez Raja recently pointed out that Ahmed Shehzad is a middle order batsman. Too bad no one told him that NBP as 4 openers which is why he has to bat at no 3.