Former Pakistan players slam Afridi for flip-flop
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 may have resigned from the post of the captaincy of the Pakistani Test team and retired from the five-day format of the game with reasons which seemed valid, but it has not gone down well with Pakistani fans and former cricketers. Two former captains of the Pakistan team, Imran Khan and Aamer Sohail have, in fact, panned the all-rounder for resigning from the side in the middle of the series and leaving the team without a leader.
Afridi was coaxed into the leadership by the PCB after he had had retired from the game on two previous occasions. However, according to the former captains, Afridi shouldn’t have taken up the role if he was not too keen on leaving the side midway. The former captains said by announcing the decision, Afridi had made things very difficult for the side.
They said that the side had become destabilized thanks to this and that he should have had the guts to continue as the skipper of the side for the entire tour.
Sohail in particular said that Afridi's statements about not being fit for Test cricket rang hollow, given that he would have essentially known this before playing. According to Sohail, Afridi had let everyone down and was trying to overcome that mistake by diverting the attention of the media and public.
However, it was not only Afridi who was blamed. According to former captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 in two Tests an England in four, Haq said that the problem was with the cricket board to have decided to force him into the job, instead of taking a more sensible decision and kept Afridi off the team. This would have allowed them to get a player like Mohammad Yousuf onto the squad as well.
Haq said that even now the time is not wrong to get the likes of Younis Khan or Yousuf back into the side and have them lead the team. Haq added that the pair was a set great cricketers and the board would do well to get them back. He also said that all the issues associated with the pair should be overlooked and a fresh start should be made in order to get the Pakistani cricket back on track.
Haq also added that the decision to appoint Butt as the captain was a good one and it would help groom http://www.senore.com/Cricket/A-Young-c41367 person for the job.
He added that though the board had no choice but to get Butt as the captain, there was no doubt that he needed some support from the players, coach and the manager in England.
However, Sohail was not so optimistic. He expressed his issues with having Butt as the captain and that would mean that Butt, the batsman, could well be lost to all the pressures and issues associate with being the skipper of Pakistan.
What Sohail also said that he wanted the support-team to accept and support Butt as the captain but it was also imperative that the selectors do not dump Butt away if he were to fail in the role of a captain or with the bat.
Earlier, Afridi had shocked the world by announcing that he was no longer interested in captaining the Pakistani side in Test match cricket. He had said that he was not mentally up to it and would prefer if a younger player was given the role. When asked about when he thought that he wanted to quit, Afridi named the shot that he played in the second innings of the Lord’s Test match as the tipping point.
Tags: