Imran Khan Stands behind Captain Shahid Afridi
Since Younis Khan’s stepping down from captaincy of the Pakistan Cricket team, and Mohammad Yousuf’s disastrous outing as captain, the Pakistan Cricket Board selectors seemed to be double-minded as to whom they want Pakistan to be led by. After veteran test player Mohammad Yousuf was sacked due to Pakistan’s dismal performance in Australia, the PCB was left with no choice but to hand over the captaincy right before the 2010 edition of the Twenty20 World Cup in West Indies to ball-biting Afridi.
Pakistan, under the captaincy of Shahid Afridi, started of their T20 World Cup campaign this year sluggishly, as they lost crucial games to Australia, England and New Zealand. However, just when they were about ready to pack their bags and come back from the West Indies, an exceptional performance and a little help from England saw Pakistan getting through to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup. Captain Afridi, along with the help of Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, and Salman Butt, helped Pakistan beat South Africa, thus coming back to form. In the semi-finals, after comprehensively dominating the match for most of the thirty eight overs, Pakistan sadly lost due to once-in-a-lifetime innings by Australia’s Mike Hussey.
Captain Afridi was still hopeful despite the loss. On his return, he said the team was a united outfit in the West Indies and this was obvious in their performances throughout the tournament. Thus, once again after showing the world to watch out for Pakistan cricket, Shahid Afridi, one of the most attacking cricketers in international cricket today, has been appointed as the captain in all three formats of the game.
Soon after this news broke, Afridi categorically stated that he will root out politics from Pakistani cricket and in doing so will not shy away from sacking the troublemakers. He made it clear that he would only ask the players to deliver as per the requirements of being in the national team, which means to perform and to avoid creating any sort of negative vibes. His view is that if the team stands united then it can surpass all expectations and excel in all formats of the game, not just Twenty20.
Legendary Pakistan cricketer, and the most successful captain who brought glory to Pakistan by winning the 1992 World cup, Imran Khan, threw his weight behind the newly inducted captain Shahid Afridi. Imran says “who else if not Afridi”. His reasoning is that Afridi was the best choice available to the Pakistan Cricket Board and also that Afridi has all the qualities of a good captain in the form of being brave, handling pressure and enjoying the respect of his teammates. However, Imran Khan gave a warning as well, that Afridi should be given some time to settle in before being judged.
Shahid Afridi has not played a test match since 2006 due to a self-imposed exile from the game, in order to concentrate more on the shorter formats. However, now after taking on the all-important role as captain of the test team, he hopes that he would be able to handle the pressure. Imran Khan too believes that by being captain and shouldering such a huge responsibility, Afridi will act a little more maturely.
However, all being said and done, one thing the PCB should embed in their mind is that now that they have taken the decision to give Afridi the reigns, he should be given a long spell, since frequent changes at the top make a team unstable. Afridi has a long summer ahead of him as Pakistan will feature in the four-nation Asia Cup Tournament starting in Sri Lanka on June 15 (till June 24). After that, the team will head over to England to play two test matches and two T20s against the mighty Australians, followed by four tests, five ODIs and two T20s against hosts England.
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