http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shoaib-Malik-c90088: A vital player for Pakistan cricket – Part Two
Continued from part one . . .
Pakistan failed to qualify for the second round of the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Cricket World Cup 2007 in the Caribbean and the great Inzamam ul Haq decided to retire from limited overs cricket in the disappointment.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has some safer choices for leadership in shape of some senior players like Younis Khan, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdul-Razzaq-c41623 and Shahid Afridi but the cricket board decided to make Malik the new captain for Pakistan.
He led his country to the final of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 at home.
He kept on representing Pakistan as a player and came up with some extra-ordinary knocks in between. Especially, his match-winning hundred against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 in the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 will be remembered for many years to come.
However, Malik’s form in Test cricket faced a decline and that’s why he remained in and out of the national team.
After the controversial tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mohammad-Asif-c1993 were banned from all sorts of competitive cricket, Malik was also among the players, who were asked by PCB to provide the legal documentations of their banking transactions.
It took him almost a year to provide all the necessary details to the cricket board but he said in his justification, "For one, the only reason I got delayed in getting clearance from the integrity committee was because I didn't maintain proper documents and it took time getting them. The problem is players in Asian region generally tend to take these things non-seriously and leave things to managers."
Malik is now all set to make the international return and the former captain is going to take this as an opportunity to cement his place in the national team. Shoaib feels that he can play for Pakistan for another seven to eight years and feels that these are going to be the best years of his career.
"I feel that from 29 onwards for the next 6 or 7 years are the best years for a batsman, where you can apply your experience and what you have learnt. I'm at that stage now. What's happened is history now, it's time to move on, look forward,” Malik added.
With the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 having his problems with PCB, Malik can play a very important for Pakistan cricket in the years to come. He is now a senior player and his experience is going to be vital for the Green Shirts. One should not be surprised if Malik’s name is mentioned for the national captaincy once again in near future, at least in the limited overs cricket.
It is a great sign for Pakistan as Malik is a match-winner, unlike some of the other senior players of the country, who have been blamed for their selfish attitude in the past. Let us hope that the former captain finds his form in international cricket straight away.
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