Mohammad Yousuf eyeing a comeback
Pakistan’s most prolific test batsman in recent times, Mohammad Yousuf, is once again getting ready to make a return to test cricket after announcing his retirement earlier. Pakistan play a test series in UAE this October, and the middle order batsman is targeting that series as his comeback.
Pakistan will play South Africa in 2 test matches and 5 ODIs followed by a T-20. Yousuf has been sidelined since his retirement from international cricket in March this year. However, now he has finally started to rethink about making his way back into the team. Yousuf played in the local Lahore Premier league recently and believes he is still fit enough to play for his country.
Yousuf said as of now he plans to participate in domestic cricket, and slowly make his way back in the team on merit. Yousuf said that he is targeting the test and ODI series in October to return to the team.
Yousuf was the captain of Pakistan when Pakistan went on their catastrophic tour of Australia, which in simple words turned out to be a nightmare for Pakistan. The men in green lost the 5 test series 5 nil, followed by a whitewash in the ODI series and to top it all off they lost the only T-20 too.
After the tour Pakistan cricket board decided to look into the reasons behind the dismal show and set up an inquiry committee.
The committee conducted a thorough investigation into the tour, and also the preceding tours in order to find out what went wrong in the team.
The findings were shocking to say the least, most of the players complained about politics within the team. Yousuf was found to be at the centre of most of the problems, given his obvious conflicts with the former Captain, Shoaib Malik. Yousuf was charged along with 6 other players for a number of reasons.
Yousuf, in particular, was banned for an indefinite period from playing for Pakistan (same punishment was handed to Younis Khan).
While Shahid Afridi was fined 3 million for his ball biting antics, Akmal brothers (Kamran and Umar) were given 2 and 3 million rupee fines respectively, whereas Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved were handed a ban of one year. Later, though almost all the bans were lifted and fines reduced by the board after an inquiry tribunal led by former justice Irfan Qadir heard the players’ plea. Moreover, Yousuf was the only payer not to file an appeal, the reason given to him for his ban by the board was that ‘his presence in the team was detrimental to the whole squad’. Yousuf did not reply to any of the messages by the board and decided to announce his retirement. Hence, he was not considered for selection when the team for England tour was being announced. Pakistan will play 2 test matches against Australia and 4 against England on that tour, so 6 test matches would have been ideal for him to make a comeback. The board after announcing the team made it clear that Yousuf had not been considered because he has retired from the game and did not make himself available nor did he try to contest his ban.
Yousuf , though, says cricket is in his blood, and he still enjoys playing the sport. The former Pakistan captain said it sure will be a challenge to play again, but he is starting at the club level to feed his way back in, and will soon be back for his country.
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