Former Pakistan captain and cricket personality Ramiz Raja hosted Monday’s player draft for the T10 League, which will be played in Abu Dhabi later this year.

Raja endured a torrid time as the master of ceremonies. A bit of homework and other preparation would have made his job significantly more straightforward.

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He weathered several awkward silences from an unresponsive audience, so audibly nitpicked Pakhtoons coach and former Australian batsman Dean Jones’ tardy timing, criticised some coaching staff’s shoddy handwriting and insisted others smile more.

Zahir, not Zaheer

The Punjabi Legends purchased Afghanistan cricketer Zahir Khan. Raja announced the signing as former India seamer Zaheer Khan, then sheepishly attempted to correct the mistake by hailing Zahir as a good right-arm leg-spinner. Zahir is a left-arm chinaman bowler.

Read, rinse, repeat

Raja accidentally read a few stage cues out loud. ‘Repeat’, in particular, wasn’t for public consumption, but left his lips on occasion. ‘Pause for applause’ and other prompts were probably placed, but thankfully kept to himself.

Go, stop, go

More than once, Raja prematurely gave a franchise the go-ahead to make a selection before the official countdown had started. This was coupled with constantly blaming ‘the computer’ for ‘not working’. Laughter at his own jokes grew increasingly cringeworthy.

Image: Youtube screenshot