Melbourne: Too much emphasis on Twenty20 has triggered a downward spiral in Pakistan cricket and the format now threatens to "finish" the game altogether in the country, fears captain Mohammad Yousuf.
Cut down on T20 or Pak cricket will be over: Yousuf
Yousuf feels ever since the introduction of the slam-bang format in which Pakistan are the reigning world champions batsmen seem to have forgotten the virtue of patience in the longer formats of the game.
"It (batting failures) used to happen before but now because of Twenty20 cricket no player knows how to stay at the wicket anymore," Yousuf said.
"Batsmen are finding it very difficult. I know the format has money, players get it and boards do but if Pakistan hypes up Twenty20 too much, Test and ODI cricket will really go down," he told 'Cricinfo'.
Yousuf's criticism of the Twenty20 format comes in the wake of Pakistan's crushing 170-run defeat to Australia in the first Test here.
Source: PTI