Pakistan Cricket Team Captain Shahid Afridi Receives Mixed Criticism
Pakistan’s players and management are infamous for making shocking statements and then taking a complete U-Turn. This is exactly what happened during the past few days when the Pakistan Cricket Board was brainstorming to come with a name of a man who would captain the side for the upcoming Asia Cup. More importantly the series in England which would include test matches as well and thus the name of all-rounder Shahid Afridi was picked by the PCB for the job of Pakistan’s captain, in all three formats of the game. Ironic because sometime back, Afridi had withdrawn his name from the longer format of the game, but it looks like the infamous U-Turn came into play once again.
Reactions to Afridi being named as captain have been mixed so far, with some critics believing he does not have the temperament for the longer formats and some pundits looking at the decision as proving some sort of consistency in the Pakistani camp.
Pakistan’s former selectors Abdul Qadir and Sallahuddin Ahmad have both hailed the call by the PCB, however the same sentiments were not shared by another selector Iqbal Qasim, who feels that Afridi has a long time to go in proving that he is worthy of being a captain especially on the field. The PCB, after announcing the decision, said the whole nation should be supportive of the new team, especially the captain, who they have appointed after a long struggle to find the perfect candidate. Afridi ended a four year long drought from test cricket yesterday, after offering his services for sake of national interest. The PCB silenced the critics saying it was not an easy decision for Afridi to accept captaincy in these testing times, as he has not played test cricket in four years.
Critics such as Iqbal Qasim have said that One day cricket and Twenty 20 are a different ball game altogether, proving himself in the test format will be a great challenge for Afridi, due to his long layover. But the harshest criticism came from former captain Zaheer Abbas, who called the appointment of Afridi as captain for the test side as “absurd”. Expressing his shock he said Afridi last played a test in 2006 and that he was at the centre of the ball chewing controversy in Australia. Thus it would be some miracle that would help Pakistan being successful in the upcoming tournament.
Sallahuddin Ahmad however was hopeful that Afridi after successfully captaining Pakistan during the Twenty 20 World cup would be able to rejoin the Test bandwagon with the required zeal. Similarly former leg spin magician Abdul Qadir too was optimistic about Pakistan’s chances in the upcoming tournaments, throwing his weight behind Afridi’s captaincy. Abdul Qadir requested not just the country and the players to lend a hand to Afridi but also the media to give him an opportunity to prove his mettle and to give him time to silence his critics and that he is in fact worthy of the job.
Furthermore Qadir has made a suggestion that due to his consistent performance and his expression of maturity, Salman Butt should be appointed as deputy to Shahid Afridi.
But one question mark that still exists is with regards to Afridi’s performance on the field, especially with the bat. His off spin would be of great help during the test matches, but it is his style of batting that is most suited to the shorter format of the game. Now with this added responsibility of captaincy, his actions on the field would act as a judge to his worthiness of being handed down the title of Captain of the Pakistan cricket team.
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