After a disastrous ICC World Cup 2007, things in Pakistani cricket were looking horrible. Pakistan was not only swept aside in the preliminary round by a minor team like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751, the coach of the team, Bob Woolmer was also found dead in his hotel room. The
future of Pakistani cricket was giving a dark picture as their captain and the most prolific and dependable batsman Inzamam ul Haq also decided to quit international cricket by taking the responsibility of the world cup debacle. On top of that, Younis Khan
who was the vice-captain at that time refused to take over the role of captaining the side.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 as the captain. The second option was to move forward and think on long-term basis. That’s what PCB did
and appointed a youngster as captain of the team who could take care of the Pakistani team for a longer period of time as compared to some of his competitors. Shoaib Malik’s appointment as the captain after the 2007 world cup was probably the best decision
that Dr. Nasim Ashraf took in his tenure as the Chairman of PCB.
This decision was not only supported by the ex-cricketers, in fact the senior players of the team also appreciated this decision and demanded PCB for a long term appointment of Malik as captain. Muhammad Yousaf who has had big differences with Malik off-late,
has said on record that Malik’s appointment is the best decision taken by PCB and it should stick to it now. However, the situation changed drastically when Yousaf and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Razzaq-c84421 were not picked for the ICC T20 World Cup 2007. The senior players accused Malik
for their omission and politics within the team started from then onwards. PCB should have been stronger and pro-active that time in order to back a youngster who did not do too badly in his tenure as the captain.
Infact, some of the other international teams like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 dropped their senior players for the event too in order to give exposure to some of the younger talent but may be it was hard for Pakistan’s senior players to digest their omission
because of the culture they are brought up in.
Dr. Nasim Ashraf was wise enough to retain Malik as the captain and kept repeating that Malik is going to lead Pakistan for a long period of time. The situation changed with the ouster of then President General Pervez Musharraf, who was also the Patron-in-Chief
of the PCB. The moment Musharraf resigned from his post as President, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nasim-Ashraf-c78712, a good friend of the former president, stepped down too.
That started the worst period of Pakistani cricket which was full of controversies and is still going on. Just one loss against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 at Lahore caused Shoaib Malik to lose his captaincy during the series against Sri Lanka. PCB should have been much stronger
at that time and should have kept him the captain until the end of the series.
History of Pakistani cricket proves that changing of captains have always brought grouping and infighting within the team. That’s exactly what happened and only the PCB could be blamed for being too weak to not to stand against the player-power against Malik.
Once Malik lost the captaincy, he along with his group did the same with Younis Khan and PCB again was no more than a mere spectator.
If PCB wants to take Pakistan cricket in the right direction, it has to take positive and strong steps to control the player power and infighting in the team. Otherwise, Pakistan cricket would be plunged into such darkness, from where it would never be able
to rise again.
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