http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 v Afridi – A Battle which upsets Pakistan cricket
Captaincy of Pakistani cricket team has always been an aching issue. Every cricketing mind considers “changing skippers” as the main reason behind the inconsistent performance of Pakistan cricket side. Recently PCB announced the World Cup team, leaving out
the name of the captain for the mega event. This strange decision shocked everyone and even the coach of the team, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Waqar-Younis-Maitla-c96193 showed his concerns over announcing the captain.
Moreover, as expected, the decision has been http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/story/498138.html by a number of former players. There is a huge pressure on PCB and now PCB is likely to announce caption on 4th of February but it has already created many rumors about PCB’s planning to sack http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 as ODI skipper and put Misbah-ul-Haq
in his place.
Though Misbah showed full trust over Afridi’s captaincy but this issue has already become a heated debate and discussed all around. Surveys are giving an impression that majority of Pakistani people want Afridi to lead the side; however, some cricket intellectuals
have argued differently and gone in opposite directions.
The general view is that Afridi is aggressive and Misbah is defensive. On ground, Afridi's record as captain is not
http://wzus1.reference.com/r?t=p&d=d&s=di&c=a&l=dir&o=0&sv=0a5c4266&ip=b6b1bc25&id=75D047AC96B7124BED6D65D1621BB889&q=hugely&p=1&qs=121&ac=24&g=1d99t1Nnll4lVw&en=dy&io=6&ep=&eo=&b=di1&bc=&br=&tp=d&ec=20&pt=tremendous&ex=&url=&u=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tremendously impressive. With seven wins and 10 losses in 18 games, he averages nearly 36 with the bat.
On the other side, Misbah's case for captaincy is much weaker on paper. He has not been part of the ODI set-up for most of the last year. Facts show that he was dropped from the ODI team because of his poor batting performance but
recently he has showed exceptional form with the bat and has just led Pakistan to a drought-breaking Test series win. Misbah, who not only made six test half-centuries in a row but also gave excellent ODI performance against New Zealand in ongoing competitions.
Both players are considered as strong contenders for captaincy in the World Cup and indications are that Afridi's chances of retaining captaincy will depend on his and the team's performance in the ongoing series against New Zealand. It is a very important
debate that who would be a better caption, Misbah or Afridi but it also arises many questions.
“Would it be appropriate to change the captain at this moment?”
"If Afridi is not to be the captain for the World Cup why is he made skipper for six one day contests against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754?”
Pakistan cricket board is likely to announce captain for the World Cup on 4th February but still the situation is not understandable. The more time the PCB took in naming the World Cup skipper, the more controversial the issue has become. It must
have done many days before because it would be a mind-boggling decision if PCB changes caption now.
Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq are opponents but they didn’t allow this issue to disturb their mutual relations. They have showed much of sportsman spirit but there are rumors around that "By not naming the caption while announcing Worl Cup team, the Board
has split the players into http://www.cricketnirvana.com/players/pakistan/shahid-afridi.html and http://www.cricketnirvana.com/players/pakistan/misbah-ul-haq.html groups.
Major cricket sponsors who have invested huge money in the tournament in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 have already prepared their campaigns with Shahid Afridi as captain. So they have shown their concerns that any change in the captaincy now would crash their advertising campaigns
and cost them millions of rupees in losses.
Pakistan team was dismal in the last couple of World Cup competitions. Now World Cup is round the corner and this is not the right time to make changes at the top. Everyone simply failed to understand, what is the logic behind not announcing World Cup captain?
Making a crucial change at the last moment is only going to hurt the team’s prospects.”
Misbah or Afridi, whoever wins the battle of captaincy, Pakistan cricket has already lost many prospects due to this unnecessary war.
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