Waqar Younis’ support for Shahid Afridi irks Pakistan Cricket Board
Pakistan coach, Waqar Younis, in a press conference on the 18th of January, had expressed his surprise over http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 Cricket Board's (PCB) decision of not naming the ODI captain for the 2011 World Cup, set to begin from the 19th of
February.
In a press conference in New Zealand, the team coach said, "I am surprised that the board has delayed announcing the captain. I don't know the reasons for this, but, personally, I think the captain should have been named with the team".
This did not go down well with the PCB and the board demanded an explanation by Waqar for giving such a statement to the press. The PCB media manager, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nadeem-Sarwar-c78422, said, "We have asked him to explain his statement over the captaincy issue".
It is believed by insiders in the PCB that the board got an impression that the coach had indirectly favored the current ODI skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 as the
ODI captain for the World Cup. However, sources believe that the national coach does not want any changes in the captaincy of the team and feels comfortable working with Afridi as the skipper.
Waqar, along with other former cricketers, are of the opinion that changing the captaincy would prove counter-productive with the World Cup is so near. Former king of reverse swing, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wasim-Akram-c96292 has advised the board not to replace Afridi as the skipper because
he believed that it would not help the team in any way, and the new captain would be under tremendous pressure, which will affect his personal form. Akram also asserted that not naming the captain for the World Cup would encourage politics within the players
of the national team because every player would start believing in the notion that he has a shot at the captaincy.
The chairman of the PCB, Ijaz Butt, has flown to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ijaz-Butt-c64128 may resolve the captaincy issue there as well. However, no statement regarding the finalization of captaincy
has been made public yet.
According to insiders, the board delayed the nomination of the World Cup skipper to give a clear warning to Afridi that he needed to improve his leadership and form in order to retain the national captaincy.
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