Former Pakistan captain and legendary all-rounder, Wasim Akram and leg-spinning great, Abdul Qadir, have lambasted the chief of Pakistan Cricket Board, Ijaz Butt, for removing Shahid Afridi from the helm of the national One Day International
team.
Afridi, who was appointed as captain last year
before the Asia Cup, led Pakistan in 34 ODIs. His record as a leader
composed of 18 wins and 15 losses, before the snub last week. He has
been included in the team for the two-match ODI
series against Ireland as an ordinary member only with Test captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, taking over the reins of the ODI team.
Wasim, who himself led Pakistan in two
different stints during his cricketing career, stated that the decision
taken by the Board was an inexplicable one and defied logic, as Misbah
was at best, a stop-gap arrangement.
He added that internal bickering and politics
was rife in Pakistan cricket for the last few decades and Afridi should
not have been side-lined after his tiff with the current coach and
Wasim’s legendary new-ball partner, Waqar Younis.
Akram said, “Arguments between captains and
coaches are not new in Pakistan cricket,". "Afridi was hailed as a
national hero after the World Cup, and came back from the West Indies after winning the ODI series only to find out he has
been sacked. What is the PCB up to? "It is a wrong step taken by PCB, and only [chairman] Ijaz Butt is to be blamed for this.”
The only Pakistani bowler to take more than
400 wickets in test cricket stated that all these years the coach of the
national team has wanted all the power and when he is not heard,
problems emanate. He inferred that Waqar was having
similar problems.
On the other hand, another former captain, Abdul Qadir,
feels that the governing body of the game in the country took the wrong
decision quickly, as they should have taken some time to resolve the
conflict between Waqar and Afridi.
While speaking to the media, Wasim said,
“Afridi should also be careful in giving media statements. But the fact
is changing the captaincy is a cricketing decision and this one is not a
sagacious one. Dropping Afridi as captain and
retaining him in the side to play under Misbah appears a bad move.”
Qadir was himself irked by the behaviour of
the current chief and resigned from the post of chief selector some
years ago. He feels that Pakistan cricket has once again suffered due to
the incompetence of Ijaz Butt and it is high time
that some stern decisions are taken by the government and the Chairman is shown the door.
0 comments:
Post a Comment