Shahid Afridi deserves another chance after a brilliant World Cup
The word 'controversy' is a part and parcel of Pakistan cricket and it seem to follow the Green Shirts every now and then. Cricket fans all around the world are amazed that Pakistan is still a very competitive unit in international cricket and can beat any
high-class team on a given day even though the men in green have gone through so much since last five years.
The latest controversy of former captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 is the hot topic in Pakistan cricket at the moment and all the high-profile officials of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) seem to have decided that they are not going to let Afridi dictate terms.
He might be an outspoken person and the style of his game with the bat actually reflects on Afridi's personality as well because he likes to be on the front-foot all the time and attack.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 and his management has without doubt made some ridiculous decisions in their tenure in PCB but they seem to have solid reasons this time round.
However, PCB and its management cannot take the credit away from Afridi as he did a splendid job in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Cricket World Cup 2011 and took his team to the semi-finals of the mega event.
Boom Boom took control of the green shirts when they were completely shattered after a disasterous tour of Australia in 2009-10. Soon after, Pakistan faced probably the biggest controversy of its cricket history when the Test captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Salman-Butt-c2418 and the
fast bowling pair of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013.
At that stage, things were looking very bleak for Pakistan cricket but Afridi in limited overs cricket and Misbah ul Haq in Test cricket did a commendable job and re-united a shattered bunch of cricketers.
No cricket pundit in the world could have imagined in the wildest of his dreams that the Green Shirts will qualify for the last four of the World Cup only after eight months of that disaster. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 played their best World Cup since 1999 and looked like
a dangerous unit as they defeated big teams like http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 in the mega event.
It was not just about winning, the Green Shirts seemed to have a nice plan about their game whenever they came out in the field. Yes, the management has a huge role in making those plans but planning is one thing and implementing those plans inside the ground
is completely a different thing.
The key to Pakistan's success was the fact that Afridi led his team from the front and ended up as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 21 scalps along with India's http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Z-Khan-c98379.
He looked off-colour in the match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/LRPL-Taylor-c1849 was running away with the show. Apart from that game, Afridi was spot on throughout the tournament.
He had to take a very harsh decision by leaving out http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wahab-Riaz-c95839. Boom Boom had to face a lot of criticism in the Pakistani media for not picking Akhtar in the later stages
of the tournament but that decision turned out to be the right one as Riaz took five crucial wickets in the semi-final against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750.
Yes, Afridi has violated the code of conduct of PCB but the officials should not tighten the grip that much on the all-rounder that he might never be able to represent Pakistan again in international cricket.
Chairman PCB should solve this matter internally because Pakistan found a good limited overs captain after a long time and he should not be wasted like this. PCB should not make it a matter of its ego and should stop Afridi becoming history at a time when
he can serve Pakistan cricket for some more years.
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