Cricket Special Report: Pakistani Skipper Shahid Afirdi discards criticism and wants support for his team ahead of the ICC World Cup 2011
Pakistan Twenty20 and One-Day International (ODI) captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482, who has faced great criticism following the poor performance of his team in recent series, has requested for support ahead of World Cup commencing on 19 February. He said that criticism
before the mega event will discourage the young team.
Under his captaincy, the team faced defeat in Twenty20 series to Black Caps – the third consecutive series defeat after England and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 won 2-0. Looking at this worse situation of the team, former Pakistani players started raising fingers at Afridi’s
leadership.
Former Pakistan Captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 tour has not been up to the mark as it should be, resulting in an unsatisfactory overall performance of the team.
In response to this criticism, Afridi said that he did not want to react to the criticism, and all he expected was moral support for his team as it was going through a tough phase with the World Cup not very far away.
“The former cricketers are well aware of the current crisis in the team and should avoid comments that would leave a negative impact before the tournament” Afridi said.
Afridi added that time has changed and with the team facing various issues, the attack was uncalled for. Giving a comparison, he said that situation was now totally different; it was not the same as it was in the times of Imran Khan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Javed-Miandad-c66580.
Afridi pointing on some former players said that they just wait for the team’s bad performance to launch an attack on the team or on certain players and then same people give applause when the team performs well.
The captain however, still remained confident for making up best line-up for the World Cup in which http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 may miss the experienced trio – Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamir, who were suspended over deliberately throwing no-balls in the fourth
Test in England at Lord’s.
The three will appear in the International Cricket Council anti-corruption tribunal, on the spot-fixing case from 6 January to 11 at Doha, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Qatar-c2986.
Afridi talking about the three alleged players said that certainly, the team will miss the players but still they have good players who will form the team for the World Cup. The skipper was also condemned for team selection in the Twenty20s against New Zealand.
He revealed that he has now tried different combinations keeping the World Cup in mind.
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