http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Inzamam-ul-Haq-c64383 criticizes the Pakistan Cricket Board for not naming the World Cup captain
The former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has lashed out at the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for not naming the team’s World Cup captain. Inzamam has blamed the Board for the team’s disastrous start to the six match one-day international
(ODI) series against New Zealand. Pakistan was thumped by the Kiwis in the first ODI to a 9 wicket defeat after Pakistan managed to score only 124 runs before being bundled out.
Pakistan is the only team participating in the World Cup which is yet to announce its skipper. The 15-man squad has already been announced but the leadership position is still up for grabs. The two contenders http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 are waiting
for the announcement which is likely to be made based on the team’s performance on the tour of New Zealand.
Inzamam has stated that the decision to defer the announcement of the captain is raising uncertainty amongst players and damaging team performance. He also said that there is a possibility that different groups will form in the dressing room.
He also played down Pakistan’s chances in the upcoming World Cup under such circumstances. Inzamam said, “With only three weeks left to the World Cup, Pakistan have no captain and the blame goes to the PCB for creating an impasse which has divided the team
into two groups, supporting Afridi and Misbah. In this scenario one cannot have high expectations for the team."
The former middle-order batsman attacked the Board saying, “The PCB has failed to control the situation and if http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 fares badly in the World Cup, people will accuse the players and not the Board. When a team is without a captain how can a proper strategy
be made? The team is playing a one-day series in New Zealand but they do not know who will be their captain in the World Cup which is very damaging."
However, not everyone is against PCB’s decision. Some ex-players, namely http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sarfraz-c88817 Nawaz and Abdul Qadir, have praised the Board for delaying the decision and spoke against the current ODI captain. They have commented that Afridi has failed to lead from the
front and is not able to set a standard for other players to follow. Misbah on the other hand has been in sublime form as he has scored a score of 50 or above in his last 7 international innings.
Misbah is currently handling the leadership of the Test side and the team has performed exceptionally well under him. Pakistan did not lose any of the 4 matches that he was in charge of. The men in green drew the 2 Test match series against South Africa
and then went on to win the recent series against New Zealand 1-0 on the Kiwis’ home soil. This was Pakistan’s first Test series win in over 4 years.
Afridi’s reign as captain of the limited over teams has not been as fluent and in recent games the team has had to face disastrous results. Pakistan has lost 6 of its last 7 T20 matches and has failed to win an ODI series. The team came close to defeating
England and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 in an ODI series but lost the deciding match on both occasions. Hence Pakistan came second best in both the 5 match series which ended with a similar score line of 3-2.
The World Cup begins on February 19 in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754.
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