Pakistan’s former captain, Wasim Akram, has criticised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for sacking the limited overs skipper, Shahid Afridi, a decision which was made public on Thursday 19 May, 2011, by the country’s cricket board.
Expressing his outrage at the blunder committed by the PCB, Akram said, “It was wrong to sack Afridi, who has recently brought glory to the country against all odds".
Wasim stressed that clashes between skipper and coaches were not new to Pakistan cricket and there was no need for the PCB to sack the flamboyant all-rounder because of a spat with Head Coach, Waqar Younis.
"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 upto?" argued a furious Akram.
The former veteran, who is now the bowling coach of Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL), insisted that the PCB had made a big mistake, which will be repented later.
Questioning the appointment of the 36-year old Test captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, as the One Day captain, he reckoned that the middle-order batsman will not have a long future in the game and expected him to stay in the post for not more than five to six months, after which the PCB will have to introduce a new One Day International (ODI) captain.
The left-arm pacer opined that the PCB had shown poor judgment and has played a vital role in destabilising the one-day outfit of the Pakistan team by sacking a successful captain.
Akram while blaming the PCB Chairman, Ijaz Butt, for this poor judgement revealed that in Pakistan the head coach seeks all powers and control over the team and when he fails to achieve this, it causes a rift within the team.
Akram himself faced such situations when he captained the Pakistan team and this time it was Afridi, who faced the wrath, of standing against the coach of the team.
Earlier this month, Afridi and Waqar were caught in a feud over the selection of the team for the fourth and fifth ODIs in the five-match ODI series, which was being played in the West Indies. Having won the series by taking the first three games, the skipper wanted to give the young players in the squad a shot at the hosts.
However, Waqar did not pay heed to the captain’s call and stuck with the winning combination. This is said to have irked the relationship between the two and after reaching Pakistan, Afridi hinted that there were some issues with the team management over the team selection because of which the team lost the last two games.
Afridi’s statements condemning the team management are said to have disappointed Ijaz Butt and he decided that it was finally time to replace Afridi.
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