LAHORE – Pakistan cricket coach Waqar Younis has expressed ‘regrets’ over his comments on the World Cup captaincy issue that he recently made on a television channel. The former Test captain’s comments did not go down well with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and it issued a notice to Waqar to explain his remarks.
“Yes, Waqar has submitted a reply to the notice that the board had sent him. And Waqar has said that he would be careful in future while giving statements,” an official of the board was quoted by PTI. Waqar had earlier said that he was surprised that the PCB had announced the World Cup squad but not the captain, adding that it was all the more surprising as all the other teams had named their captains.
He had further added that only the board could explain what reasons it had for withholding the captain’s name for the mega-event, while declaring the 15-member squad. “Waqar has expressed regrets over his comments and conceded that he spoke on an issue, which is not in his domain as national team coach,” the source said.
“He has also assured us he will be careful while giving statements in future,” the source added. The World Cup captaincy issue has attracted a huge debate in Pakistan over who should be leading the team in the World Cup — Shahid Afridi or Misbah-ul-Haq.
Afridi’s supporters have even spun the theory that the batting collapse in the first One-day International at Wellington was strange as the same batsmen had scored plenty of runs in the Test series against New Zealand under Misbah’s captaincy. But Afridi-led Pakistan lost the first ODI by a thumping margin of nine wickets against the Kiwis.
Sources has claimed that Waqar privately told the board that it would be unwise to change the captain for the one-day team at the eleventh hour before the World Cup.
