Ijaz Butt flies to New Zealand to resolve captaincy crisis
Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman (PCB) Ijaz Butt has flown to New Zealand in order to solve the captaincy crisis facing Pakistan ahead of the all important 2011 ICC World Cup.
The PCB named the 15-man squad for the World Cup on 18 January but did not announce any captain or vice captain for the mega event. That has added fuel to the speculations that Shahid Afridi might be replaced by Misbah ul Haq as captain for the one-day internationals
(ODI).
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755
is scheduled to play six ODIs in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754, the first of which starts on 22 January.
The Pakistan cricket team has had a very poor time under the leadership of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 and suffered a lot of forgettable defeats in 2010. Afridi led the Pakistani team in two complete ODI series and the 2010 Asia Cup however, Pakistan was not able to win
any of those events despite running very close against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 and England.
Pakistan had been rated as one of the best teams in Twenty20 cricket, but under Shahid Afridi's leadership their performance suffered big time in 2010, as they lost series to England, South Africa and New Zealand. However, Pakistan did beat http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 2-0
in the Twenty20 series in England. Continuous poor performances from Pakistan under Afridi have definitely weakened his case.
On the other hand, Misbah ul Haq has led Pakistan quite impressively ever since he has taken over the Test captaincy. In his fist series in charge Pakistan drew a Test series against South Africa. Later Misbah was able to lead Pakistan to their first Test
series win in four years against New Zealand.
Ijaz Butt is known for taking u-turns on a lot of decisions, but let’s hope that this time he takes a decision which is in Pakistan’s best interest. However, Shahid Afridi is still the favourite candidate for the World Cup captaincy.
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