Shahid Afridi’s future as Pakistan captain likely to be decided today

The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman is scheduled to meet the PCB chief selector, Mohsin Khan, in Lahore today to decide on the fate of Pakistan’s limited-overs skipper, Shahid Afridi, as the captain of the team for the Ireland series.

Sources in Pakistan Cricket Board have claimed that Ijaz Butt is not happy with Afridi since his statement against team management on his return home from West Indies.There are speculations that the aggressive all-rounder may lose his captaincy position to Test skipper Misbah-ul-Haq or the experienced top order batsman, Mohammad Hafeez.

"...the chairman is still not happy with Afridi and it will decided tomorrow whether the board retains him as captain and player for the one-day series in Ireland or decides to either ask Misbah to lead the team in Irelandor opt for Mohammad Hafeez," stated the source.

Afridi, on his return home from the Caribbean, told reporters that he was at loggerheads with the management over team selection for the five-match One-Day series, which Pakistan won by 3-2.

The board had last week served Afridi with a show cause notice, seeking an explanation for bringing his differences with the head coach, Waqar Younis, to the media.

Afridi has submitted his reply but the board did not give details regarding what the 31-year-old has stated in his response. However, it has been reported that the prolific leg-spinner would find it quite difficult to win back Ijaz Butt’s confidence.

A final decision on the captain of the side to tour Ireland will be taken today when Butt and Mohsin meet at the PCB Headquarters, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Afridi, however, has confirmed his availability for the ODI series against Ireland.

The sources have also claimed that in the meeting Butt and Mohsin will finalise the squad to visit Ireland.

Earlier, it was reported that the PCB selectors were considering the retention of the Test squad playing in West Indies, for the tour of Ireland. But the dismal performance of men in green in the first Test of the two-match series has prompted the selectors and the PCB chairman to reconsider the decision and now the board is deliberating over sending a specialist squad to Ireland.

"…after Pakistan lost the first Test to the West Indies, the board chairman now wants the selectors to send some specialist one-day players for the Ireland matches as he is not keen on seeing more defeats," said a well placed source in the board.