Afridi likely to retain captaincy for World Cup

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LAHORE – The Pakistan Cricket Board may retain Shahid Afridi as captain of the team for the forthcoming World Cup after Pakistan won the second ODI against New Zealand by 43 runs. Afridi made 65 runs, his first half century in nearly a dozen ODIs and with this maiden performance in since the 2006 T20 World held in England. The way a certain lobby is applying pressure on the PCB and it is likely that Afridi would be made captain of the team.
Although some players back Misbah-ul Haq as the leader, but Ijaz Butt has directed the management to stick to Afridi as captain although there is still a divided opinion after Misbah’s successful show in Test series. The scales seemed to have heavily tilted in favour of Afridi after the dashing batsman smashed 65 off only 25 deliveries in Pakistan’s series leveling win. “Butt has come to the conclusion after discussing the captaincy issue with the team management and others that it would be unwise to change the captain at such a stage and since Afridi has been the ODI captain since late 2009,” a source claimed.
The board also wanted to end the captaincy debate by announcing the captain in next 24 hours. There was plenty of debate in the cricketing circles after the PCB announced the World Cup squad of 15 players last month but didn’t name the captain. Many former players consider Afridi to be too temperamental to be given the responsibility of captaining in the World Cup and others warning against changing the captain at so late a stage. Former Pakistan captain, Shoaib Malik has also added his voice to the captaincy debate supporting Afridi.
“I don’t think it is a good move to change the captain now. When Afridi is leading the team since the last one year, it makes no sense to change him now,” Malik said. Malik also called on the board to follow a consistent policy while appointing a captain. “Anyone who is appointed captain should be given a long run to prove himself. A captain must be given security and assurance he will be there for a proper period of time. Changing captains frequently has already damaged the team in the past,” Malik said.